CHAPTER XXIII
SMOOTH FACE AND ANXIOUS BRAIN
Byner watched Eldrick and Collingwood inquisitively as they bent overHalstead's telegram. He was not surprised when Collingwood merely noddedin silence--nor when Eldrick turned excitedly in his own direction.
"There!--what did I tell you?" he exclaimed. "There's been no murder!The man left the town. Probably, Pratt helped him off. Couldn't havebetter proof than that wire!"
"What do you take that wire to prove, then, Mr. Eldrick?" asked Byner.
"Take it to prove!" answered Eldrick. "Why, that Parrawhite booked apassage to America with this man Murgatroyd, last November. Clearenough, that!"
"What do you take it to prove, Mr. Collingwood?" continued the inquiryagent, as he turned to the barrister with a smile.
"Before I take it for anything," replied Collingwood, "I want to knowwho Murgatroyd is."
Byner looked at Eldrick and laughed.
"Precisely!" he said. "Who is Murgatroyd? Perhaps Mr. Eldrick knows."
"I do just know that he's a man who carries on a small watch and clockbusiness in a poorish part of the town, and that he has some sort of ashipping agency," answered Eldrick. "But--do you mean to imply thatwhatever message it is that he's sent to your partner in London thismorning has not been sent in good faith?"
"I don't imply anything," answered Byner. "All I say is--before I attachany value to his message I, like Collingwood, want to know somethingabout the sender. He may have been put up to sending it. He may be incollusion with somebody. Now, Mr. Eldrick, you can come inhere--strongly! I don't want to be seen in this affair--yet. Will you goand see Murgatroyd? Tell him his wire to Halstead & Byner in London hasbeen communicated to you here. Ask him for further particulars--and thendrop in on me at my hotel and tell me what you've learnt. I'll be foundin the smoking-room there any time after two-thirty onward."
Eldrick's intense curiosity in what was rapidly becoming a fascinatingmystery to him, led him to accept this embassy. And a little beforethree o'clock he walked into the smoking-room at the _Central Hotel_ anddiscovered Byner in a comfortable corner.
"I've seen Murgatroyd," he whispered, as he took an adjacent chair."Decent honest enough man--very poor, I should say. He tells a plainenough story. Parrawhite, whom he knew as one of our clerks, told him,last November 23rd----"
"He was exact about dates, then, was he?" interrupted Byner.
"He mentioned them readily enough," replied the solicitor. "But to goon--Parrawhite mentioned to him, November 23rd last, that he wanted togo to America at once, Murgatroyd told him about bookings. Parrawhitecalled very early next morning, paid for his passage under the name ofParsons, and went off--en route for Liverpool, of course. So--there youare!"
"That's all Murgatroyd could tell?" inquired Byner.
"That's all he knows," answered Eldrick.
"You say Murgatroyd knew Parrawhite as one of your clerks?" asked Bynerafter a moment's thought.
"We had some process in hand against this man last autumn," repliedEldrick. "I dare say Parrawhite served him with papers."
"Would he--Murgatroyd--be likely to know Pratt?" continued Byner.
"He might--in the same connection," admitted Eldrick.
Byner smoked in silence for a while.
"Do you know what I think, Mr. Eldrick?" he said at last. "I think Prattput up Murgatroyd to sending that telegram to us in London thismorning."
"You do!" exclaimed Eldrick.
"Surely! And now," continued the inquiry agent, "if you will, you can domore--much more--without appearing to do anything. Pratt's office isonly a few minutes away. Can you drop in there, making some excuse, andwhile there, mention, more or less casually, that Parrawhite, orinformation about him, is wanted; that you and a certain Halstead &Byner are advertising for him; that you've just seen Murgatroyd inrespect of a communication which he wired to Halstead's this morning,and that--most important of all--a fortune of twenty thousand pounds isawaiting Parrawhite! Don't forget the last bit of news."
"Why that particularly?" asked Eldrick.
"Because," answered Byner solemnly, "I want Pratt to know that thesearch for Parrawhite is going to be a thorough one!"
Eldrick went off on his second mission, promising to return in duecourse. Within a few minutes he was in Pratt's office, talking over someunimportant matter of business which he had invented as he went along.It was not until he was on the point of departure that he referred tothe real reason of his visit.
"Did you notice that Parrawhite is being advertised for?" he asked,suddenly turning on his old clerk.
Pratt was ready for this--had been ready ever since Eldrick walked in.He affected a fine surprise.
"Parrawhite!" he exclaimed. "Why--who's advertising for him?"
"Don't you see the newspapers?" asked Eldrick, pointing to some whichlay about the room. "It's in there--there's an advertisement of mine,and one of Halstead & Byner's, of London."
Pratt picked up a Barford paper and looked at the advertisements with aclever affectation of having never seen them before.
"I haven't had much time for newspaper reading this last day or two," heremarked. "Advertisements for him--from two quarters!"
"Acting together--acting together, you know!" replied Eldrick. "It'sthose people who really want him--Halstead & Byner, inquiry agents,working for a firm of City solicitors. I'm only local agent--as itwere."
"Had any response, Mr. Eldrick?" asked Pratt, throwing aside the paper."Any one come forward?"
"Yes," answered Eldrick, watching Pratt narrowly without seeming to doso. "This morning, a man named Murgatroyd, in Peel Row, who does a bitof shipping agency, wired to Halstead & Byner to say that he bookedParrawhite to New York last November. Of course, they at oncecommunicated with me, and I've just been to see Murgatroyd. He's thatman--watchmaker--we had some proceedings against last year."
"Oh, that man!" said Pratt. "Thought the name was familiar. I rememberhim. And what does he say?"
"Just about as much as--and little more than--he said in his wire toLondon," replied Eldrick. "Booked Parrawhite to America November 24thlast, and believes he left for Liverpool there and then."
"Ah!" remarked Pratt, "That explains it, then?"
"Explains--what?" asked Eldrick.
Pratt gave his old employer a look--confidential and significant.
"Explains why he took that money out of your desk," he said. "Youremember--forty odd pounds. He'd use some of that for his passage-money.America eh? Now--I suppose he's vanished for good, then--it's not verylikely he'll ever be heard of from across there."
Eldrick laughed--meaningly, of set purpose.
"We don't know that he's gone there," he observed. "He mightn't getbeyond Liverpool, you know. Anyhow, we're going to make a very goodsearch for him here in Barford, first. We've nothing but Murgatroyd'sword for his having set out for Liverpool."
"What's he wanted for?" asked Pratt as unconcernedly as possible. "Beenup to something?"
"No," answered Eldrick, as he turned on his heel. "A relation has lefthim twenty thousand pounds. That's what he's wanted for--and why he mustbe found--or his death proved."
He gave Pratt another quick glance and went off--to return to the hoteland Byner, to whom he at once gave a faithful account of what had justtaken place.
"And he didn't turn a hair," he remarked. "Cool as a cucumber, allthrough! If your theory is correct, Pratt's a cleverer hand than I evertook him for--and I've always said he was clever."
"Didn't show anything when you mentioned Murgatroyd?" asked Byner.
"Not a shred of a thing!" replied Eldrick.
"Nor when you spoke of the twenty thousand pounds?"
"No more than what you might call polite and interested surprise!"
Byner laughed, threw away the end of a cigar, and rose out of hislounging posture.
"Now, Mr. Eldrick," he said, leaning close to the solicitor, "betweenourselves, do you know what I'm going to do--next--which means at
once?"
"No," replied Eldrick.
"The police!" whispered Byner. "That's my next move. Just now! Within afew minutes. So--will you give me a couple of notes--one to theprincipal man here--chief constable, or police superintendent, orwhatever he is; and another to the best detective there is here--in youropinion. They'll save me a lot of trouble."
"Of course--if you wish it," answered Eldrick. "But you don't mean tosay you're going to have Pratt arrested--on what you know up to now?"
"Not at all!" replied Byner. "Much too soon! All I want is--detectivehelp of the strictly professional kind. No--we'll give Mr. Pratt alittle more rope yet--for another four-and-twenty-hours, say. But--it'llcome! Now, who is the best local detective--a quiet, steady fellow whoknows how to do his work unobtrusively?"
"Prydale's the man!" said Eldrick "Detective-Sergeant Prydale--I've hadreason to employ him, more than once. I'll give you a note to him, andone to Superintendent Waterson."
He went over to a writing-table and scribbled a few lines on half-sheetsof notepaper which he enclosed in envelopes and handed to Byner.
"I don't know what line you're taking," he said, "nor where it's goingto end--exactly. But I do know this--Pratt never turned a hair when Ilet out all that to him."
But if Eldrick went away from his old clerk's fine new offices thinkingthat Pratt was quite unperturbed and unmoved by the news he had justacquired, he was utterly mistaken. Pratt was very much perturbed, deeplymoved, not a little frightened. He had so schooled himself to keep astraight and ever blank expression of countenance in any sudden changeof events that he had shown nothing to Eldrick--but he was none the lessupset by the solicitor's last announcement. Twenty thousand pounds waslying to be picked up by Parrawhite--or by Parrawhite's next-of-kin!What an unhappy turn of fortune! For the next-of-kin would never restuntil either Parrawhite came to light, or it was satisfactorilyestablished that he was dead--and if search begun to be made in Barford,where might not that search end? Unmoved?--cool?--if Eldrick had turnedback, he would have found that Pratt had suddenly given way to a fit ofnerves.
But that soon passed, and Pratt began to think. He left his officeearly, and betook himself to his favourite gymnasium. Exercise did himgood--he thought a lot while he was exercising. And once more, insteadof going home to dinner, he dined in town, and he sat late over hisdinner in a snug corner of the restaurant, and he thought and plannedand schemed--and after twilight had fallen on Barford, he went out andmade his way to Peel Row. He must see Murgatroyd again--at once.
Half-way along Peel Row, Pratt stopped, suddenly--and with sudden fear.Out of a side street emerged a man, a quiet ordinary-looking man whom heknew very well indeed--Detective-Sergeant Prydale. He was accompanied bya smart-looking, much younger man, whom Pratt remembered to have seen inBeck Street that afternoon--a stranger to him and to Barford. And as hewatched, these two covered the narrow roadway, and walked intoMurgatroyd's shop.