III
Plummer's two plain-clothes men and I reached the neighbourhood of thebank with a quarter of an hour to spare, or rather more. We dismissedthe cab at some little distance from the spot, and approached singly, sothat it was not difficult for us to slip in separately among the dozenor fifteen clerks as they arrived. We passed directly into the manager'sroom, the door of which opened into the space left for the public beforethe counter. From this room the whole of the outer office was visiblethrough the glass of the partition. The manager, Mr. Blockley, a quick,intelligent man of thirty-six or so, gave us chairs and pointed out howbest we could watch the counter without ourselves being observed.
"If a letter is sent," he said, "it will be brought here to me, ofcourse, and I will bring the messenger in. If a cheque is presented fromMayes, I have told the cashier to slide that big ledger off his deskaccidentally with his elbow. That will be your signal, and then you cando whatever you think proper. I don't think I can do any more thanthat."
We took our positions and waited. I felt pretty sure that if Mayes sentat all it would be early, for obvious reasons. And I was right, for thevery first customer was our man.
He stepped in briskly scarcely a minute after the manager had ceasedspeaking, and I remembered having seen him waiting at the street corneras I came along. He was a well-dressed, smart enough looking man, infrock coat and tall hat. He took a letter-case from his pocket, pickedout a cheque from the rest of the papers in it, and passed it under thewire grille of the counter.
The cashier took it, turned it over, and shifted mechanically to postthe amount in the book on his desk. As he did so his elbow touched theheavy ledger which the manager had pointed out to us, and it fell with acrash. The cashier calmly put his pen behind his ear, and stooped topick up the book, but even as he did it the two Scotland Yard men wereout before the counter, and had sidled up to the stranger, one on eachside.
"May we see that cheque, if you please?" asked one, and the cashierturned its face toward him. "Ah, just so; a hundred pounds--Mayes. Wemust just trouble you to come with us, if you please. There is someexplanation wanted about that cheque."
I had followed the two men from the manager's room, and now I saw thatwhile one had laid his hand on the stranger's shoulder the other hadtaken him by the opposite arm. "Why," said the former, looking into hisface, "it's Broady Sims!"
"All right," the man growled resignedly. "It's a cop. I'll go quiet."
But as he spoke I saw the free hand steal out behind him and pitch awaya crumpled fragment of paper. One of the policemen saw it too, followedit with his eyes, and saw me snatch it up.
"That's right, sir," he said, "take care of that; and we'll have a cab,in case anything else drops accidentally. It's just a turning over,Broady, that's what it is."
I spread out the piece of paper, and was astonished to find inscribed onit just such another series of figures, in groups of eight, as was foundin the cypher message in the Case of the Lever Key.
Here was a great find--a secret message as clear to me as to Mayeshimself, and as likely as not the scrap of paper that would hang him! Itook one of the plain-clothes men aside while the other kept his hold ofBroady Sims.
"This is very important," I said. "It is a cypher message which Mr.Hewitt can read--or I, myself, in fact, with a little time. Must youtake it with you? If so, I'll make a copy now."
"Well, sir, we're responsible, you see," the man said, "so I think wemust take it; so perhaps you'd better make a copy, as you suggest."
"Very well," I said, "that is done in a few seconds. You can take yourman off, and I will go direct to Mr. Hewitt and Inspector Plummer withthe copy." And with that I made the copy, which read thus:--
23, 19, 15, 1, 9, 14, 9, 2; 20, 8, 1, 20, 14, 14, 20, 8; 14, 5, 12, 4, 9, 7, 5, 14; 3, 8, 18, 23, 0, 14, 1, 8; 22, 9, 6, 1, 18, 3, 5, 1; 19, 14, 15, 21, 9, 0, 20, 12; 18, 12, 21, 1, 6, 23, 20, 12; 9, 18, 15, 5, 18, 13, 12, 20.
It struck me to ask the manager if the cheque just presented were one ofthose procured from Mr. Trenaman the night before, and I found that itwas. Then I left the policemen with their prisoner and made for thenearest cab-rank. This cypher message, no doubt conveying Mayes'sinstructions to the man just captured, was probably of the utmostimportance, and Hewitt must see it at once; and as the cab ambled alongtowards Barbican I busied myself in deciphering the figures according tothe plan of the knight's move in chess, as Hewitt had explained to me. Icould only see two noughts among the numbers, so plainly it was a longermessage than the one then deciphered--one of sixty-two letters, in fact.I turned the figures into the letters corresponding in the alphabet, _a_for 1, _b_ for 2, and so on, as Hewitt had done, and I arranged theseletters in the squares of a roughly drawn chessboard, so that they stoodthus:--
w s o a i n i b t h a t n n t h n e l d i g e n c h r w 0 n a h v i f a r c e a s n o u i 0 t l r l u a f w t l i r o e r m l t
The letters thus set out, to read off the message was a simple taskenough, in view of the key Hewitt had given me. I began, as in the caseof the Lever Key message, at the right-hand top corner, and taking theknight's move from _b_ to _e_ in the last square but one of the thirdline, thence to _a_ at the end of the fifth line, and so to _t_ in theseventh line, and from that to _r_ (fifth square in bottom line), _u_ inseventh line and so on, in the order shown by the Lever Key message, acopy of which I kept as a curiosity in my pocket-book. So I read themessage through, and I set it down thus:--
/# _Be at ruin Channel Marsh to-night twelve; wait in hall for instruc. Word final._#/
The general meaning of this seemed clear enough. The man whom thepoliceman had recognised as Broady Sims was to be at some spot--a ruinedbuilding, it would seem--in a place called Channel Marsh, at midnight,there to wait in the hall for instructions; no doubt for instructionswhere to take the hundred pounds he was to have got from the bank. "Wordfinal" was not so clear, though I judged--and I think rightly--that itmeant that the word "final" was to be used as a password by which thetwo messengers should know each other.
I was almost at my destination, and was cogitating the message and itsmeaning, when the cab checked at some traffic in Barbican, just by the"Compasses" public-house, and Mr. Victor Peytral hailed me and climbedon the step of the cab.
"I was just going to see if Mr. Hewitt was at the place," he said, "andif so to ask him for news. But I am rather in a hurry, and perhaps youcan tell me?"
"We are on the track, I think," I answered, "and I have just come acrossthis, which I am taking to Hewitt," and with that I showed him mytranslation of the cypher, and gave him its history in half a dozensentences.
"That's good," Peytral answered. "I don't know Channel Marsh, do you?But probably Mr. Hewitt does. I won't keep you any longer--I see you'rehurrying. But I hope to see you again before long."
He dropped off the step and disappeared, and the cab went on round thecorner by the "Compasses."
I found Hewitt and Plummer in the office where, on pretence ofbookbindery, I had first seen Mayes face to face the day before. Theywere near the completion of their examination of this office and all itscontents, and soon would begin as systematically on the premises behind.I gave Hewitt my copy of the cypher message, and my translation, with anexact account of how it had come into my possession.
Martin Hewitt studied the message for a minute or two, and then relapsedinto grave thought. So he sat for some little time, while Plummer leftthe room by the window and descended the ladder to speak with his men onguard below.
Presently Hewitt looked up and said: "Brett, this message is mostimportant--probably as important as you suppose it to be. But at thesame time I believe you have made a great mistake about it."
"But I haven't misread it, have I? Is there any other way----"
"No, you haven't misread it; you've read every word
as it was intendedto be read. But it is a very different thing from what you suppose it tobe."
"What is it, then?"
Martin Hewitt put the paper on the table and looked keenly in my face."It is a trap," he said. "It is a trap to catch _me_--unless I flattermyself unduly."
I could not understand. "A trap?" I repeated. "But how?"
"Why should Mayes need to send his confederate instructions by writtennote? We know the nature of his hold over his subordinates, and we knowthat it means personal communication. Also, the cheque was in Mayes'sown hands last night. More, Mayes knows very well that I have read thatcypher--has known it for some time; otherwise how could we havediscovered the bonds in the case of the Lever Key? Also, Mayes knowsthat we have his cheque-book and know his bank. Didn't I assure you wewere watched last night? I believe he knows all we have done. In suchcircumstances he might risk his jackal's liberty by sending him on thedesperate chance of cashing a cheque, but, knowing the risk, he wouldnever have let him come with information on him. And least of all wouldhe have let him come carrying a vital secret written in that verycypher which he knows I read many weeks ago. And then see how thatmessage, instead of being concealed, was positively brought to yournotice! That man Broady Sims is a cunning rascal, and the police knowhim of old as a skilful swindler and bill-forger. A man like thatdoesn't get rid of a compromising scrap of paper by trundling it outunder your nose just at the moment he is arrested, when the attention ofeverybody is directed to him; no, he would wait his opportunity, andthen he would probably slip it into his mouth and swallow it. As it is,he would seem to have succeeded in dropping this paper full in yoursight, with an elaborate pretence of secrecy. Now this is what has beendone, Brett. That man has been sent to cash a cheque, with very littlehope of success, or none, because the first move that Mayes wouldanticipate on our part would be the watching for him and his cheques atthe bank in Upper Holloway. If by any chance the cheques had beencashed, well and good, no harm would have been done, and then Mayescould have gone on to arrange for drawing the rest of his balance--couldprobably have quite safely come himself to draw it. But if on the otherhand, as he fully anticipated, Sims was arrested, what then? Nothing waslost but a penny cheque-form, and even Sims--though Mayes would carenothing about that--could only be searched and then released, for thecheque was perfectly genuine, and there was no charge against him. Butsince he would certainly be searched, that cypher note was given him,with instructions to make a conspicuous show of attempting to get rid ofit. Now that note was written in a cypher which Mayes knew was as plainas print--to whom? To _me_. I am on his trail, and this note isdeliberately flung in my way, open as the day, but with every appearanceof secrecy. I am his dangerous enemy, and he knows it--as he told you,in fact, yesterday. If he can clear me away, he can take breath and makehimself safe. The purpose of this note is to induce me to go, alone, tothis place on Channel Marsh to-night at twelve, in the hope of learningwhere to find Mayes. There I am to be got rid of--murdered in some way,for which preparation will be made. Mayes judges my character prettywell. He knows that, in such circumstances as he represents, Sims beingkept away from his appointment, I should certainly go and take hisplace, and use his password, to learn what I could. And, Brett, _that isprecisely what I shall do_!"
"What? You will go?" I exclaimed. "But you mustn't--the danger! We'dbetter both go together."
Hewitt smiled. "Why not forty of us?" he said. "No. Here is a chance ofbagging our man, for, however I am to be arranged for--whether by shot,steel, or the tourniquet, I make no doubt it is Mayes himself who is todo it. You shall come, however, you and Plummer at least. But we willnot go in a bunch--you shall follow me and watch, ready to help whenneedful. This Channel Marsh is an empty, dark space between two channelsof the Lea. It is among the Hackney Marshes, lying between Stratford andHomerton, and I fancy there is a deserted house there, though I can'tremember ever having seen it. Do you know it?"
"No; not in the least."
"Well, I must reconnoitre to-day, and that with a lot of care. I think Itold you I was convinced of being watched, and that is a thing you can'tprevent in a place like London, if it is skilfully done. Now, Brett, youhave done very well this morning. If you want to be on the scene ofaction to-night at twelve, you must get leave from your editor, mustn'tyou? How's your wrist?"
It was still extremely stiff, and I told Hewitt that I doubted myability to hold a pen for two or three days.
"Very well, then; get off and convey your excuses as soon as you please.I shall have a talk with Plummer, and then I shall take a few hours tomyself, by myself, in somebody else's clothes. Be in your rooms all theevening, for you may expect a message."