Author: Fred M. White
Category: Mystery
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CHAPTER V
"RECEIVED WITH THANKS."
Steel swallowed a hasty breakfast and hurried off town-wards. He hadL1,000 packed away in his cigar-case, and the sooner he was free fromBeckstein the better he would be pleased. He came at length to theoffices of Messrs. Mossa and Mack, whose brass-plate bore the legend thatthe gentry in questions were solicitors, and that they also had abusiness in London. As David strode into the offices of the seniorpartner that individual looked up with a shade of anxiety in his deep,Oriental eyes.
"If you have come to offer terms," he said, nasally, "I am sorry--"
"To hear that I have come to pay you in full," David said, grimly; "L97416s. 4d. up to yesterday, which I understand is every penny you canrightfully claim. Here it is. Count it."
He opened the cigar-case and took the notes therefrom. Mr. Mossacounted them very carefully indeed. The shade of disappointment wasstill upon his aquiline features. He had hoped to put in executionto-day and sell David up. In that way quite L200 might have been addedto his legitimate earnings.
"It appears to be all correct," Mossa said, dismally.
"So I imagined, sir. You will be so good as to indorse the receipt on theback of the writ. Of course you are delighted to find that I am notputting you to painful extremities. Any other firm of solicitors wouldhave given me time to pay this. But I am like the man who journeyed fromJericho to Jerusalem--"
"And fell amongst thieves! You dare to call me a thief? You dare--"
"I didn't," David said, drily. "That fine, discriminating mind of yourssaved me the trouble. I have met some tolerably slimy scoundrels in mytime, but never any one of them more despicable than yourself. Faugh!the mere sight of you sickens me. Let me get out of the place so that Ican breathe."
David strode out of the office with the remains of his small fortunerammed into his pocket. In the wild, unreasoning rage that came over himhe had forgotten his cigar-case. And it was some little time before Mr.Mossa was calm enough to see the diamonds winking at him.
"Our friend is in funds," he muttered. "Well, he shall have a dance forhis cigar-case. I'll send it up to the police-station and say that somegentleman or other left it here by accident. And if that Steel comes backwe can say that there is no cigar-case here. And if Steel does not seethe police advertisement he will lose his pretty toy, and serve himright. Yes, that is the way to serve him out."
Mr. Mossa proceeded to put his scheme into execution whilst David wasstrolling along the sea front. He was too excited for work, though hefelt easier in his mind than he had done for months. He turnedmechanically on to the Palace Pier, at the head of which an Eastbournesteamer was blaring and panting. The trip appealed to David in hispresent frame of mind. Like most of his class, he was given to acting onthe spur of the moment.... It was getting dark as David let himself intoDownend Terrace with his latchkey.
How good it was to be back again! The eye of the artist rested fondlyupon the beautiful things around. And but for the sport of chance, thewhim of fate, these had all passed from him by this time. It was good tolook across the dining-table over venetian glass, to see the pools oflight cast by the shaded electric, to note the feathery fall of flowers,and to see that placid, gentle face in its frame of white hair oppositehim. Mrs. Steel's simple, unaffected pride in her son was not the leastgratifying part of David's success.
"You have not suffered from the shock, mother?" he asked.
"Well, no," Mrs. Steel confessed, placidly. "You see, I never had whatpeople call nerves, my dear. And, after all, I saw nothing. Still, I amvery, very sorry for that poor young man, and I have sent to inquireafter him several times."
"He is no worse or I should have heard of it."
"No, and no better. And Inspector Marley has been here to see youtwice to-day."
David pitied himself as much as a man could pity himself considering hissurroundings. It was rather annoying that this should have happened at atime when he was so busy. And Marley would have all sorts of questions toask at all sorts of inconvenient seasons.
Steel passed into his study presently and lighted a cigarette. Despitehis determination to put the events of yesterday from his mind, he foundhimself constantly returning to them. What a splendid dramatic story theywould make! And what a fascinating mystery could be woven round thatgun-metal cigar-case!
By the way, where was the cigar-case? On the whole it would be just aswell to lock the case away till he could discover some reasonable excusefor its possession. His mother would be pretty sure to ask where it camefrom, and David could not prevaricate so far as she was concerned. Butthe cigar-case was not to be found, and David was forced to theconclusion that he had left it in Mossa's office.
A little annoyed with himself he took up the evening _Argus_. There washalf a column devoted to the strange case at Downend Terrace, and justover it a late advertisement to the effect that a gun-metal cigar-casehad been found and was in the hands of the police awaiting an owner.
David slipped from the house and caught a 'bus in St. George's Road.
At the police-station he learnt that Inspector Marley was still on thepremises. Marley came forward gravely. He had a few questions to ask, butnothing to tell.
"And now perhaps you can give me some information?" David said, "You areadvertising in to-night's _Argus_ a gun-metal cigar-case set withdiamonds."
"Ah," Marley said, eagerly, "can you tell us anything about it?"
"Nothing beyond the fact that I hope to satisfy you that the case ismine."
Marley stared open-mouthed at David for a moment, and then relapsed intohis sapless official manner. He might have been a detectivecross-examining a suspected criminal.
"Why this mystery?" David asked. "I have lost a gun-metal cigar-case setwith diamonds, and I see a similar article is noted as found by thepolice. I lost it this morning, and I shrewdly suspect that I left itbehind me at the office of Mr. Mossa."
"The case was sent here by Mr. Mossa himself," Marley admitted.
"Then, of course, it is mine. I had to give Mr. Mossa my opinion of himthis morning, and by way of spiting me he sent that case here, hoping,perhaps, that I should not recover it. You know the case Marley--it waslying on the floor of my conservatory last night."
"I did notice a gun-metal case there," Marley said, cautiously.
"As a matter of fact, you called my attention to it and asked if itwas mine."
"And you said at first that it wasn't, sir."
"Well, you must make allowances for my then frame of mind," Davidlaughed. "I rather gather from your manner that somebody else has beenafter the case; if that is so, you are right to be reticent. Still, it isin your hands to settle the matter on the spot. All you have to do is toopen the case, and if you fail to find my initials, D.S., scratched inthe left-hand top corner, then I have lost my property and the otherfellow has found his."
In the same reticent fashion Marley proceeded to unlock a safe in thecorner, and from thence he produced what appeared to be the identicalcause of all this talk. He pulled the electric table lamp over to him andproceeded to examine the inside carefully.
"You are quite right," he said, at length. "Your initials are here."
"Not strange, seeing that I scratched them there last night," said David,drily. "When? Oh, it was after you left my house last night."
"And it has been some time in your possession, sir?"
"Oh, confound it, no. It was--well, it was a present from a friend for alittle service rendered. So far as I understand, it was purchased atLockhart's, in North Street. No, I'll be hanged if I answer any more ofyour questions, Marley. I'll be your Aunt Sally so far as you areofficially concerned. But as to yonder case, your queries are distinctlyimpertinent."
Marley shook his head gravely, as one might over a promising butheadstrong boy.
"Do I understand that you decline to account for the case?" he asked.
"Certainly I do. It is connected with some friends of mine to whom Irendered a service a little time back
. The whole thing is and must remainan absolute secret."
"You are placing yourself in a very delicate position, Mr. Steel."
David started at the gravity of the tone. That something was radicallywrong came upon him like a shock. And he could see pretty clearly that,without betraying confidence, he could not logically account for thepossession of the cigar-case. In any case it was too much to expectthat the stolid police officer would listen to so extravagant a talefor a moment.
"What on earth do you mean, man?" he cried.
"Well, it's this way, sir," Marley proceeded to explain. "When I pointedout the case to you lying on the floor of your conservatory last nightyou said it wasn't yours. You looked at it with the eyes of a stranger,and then you said you were mistaken. From information given me last nightI have been making inquiries about the cigar-case. You took it to Mr.Mossa's, and from it you produced notes to the value of nearly L1,000 topay off a debt. Within eight-and forty hours you had no more prospect ofpaying that debt than I have at this moment. Of course, you will be ableto account for those notes. You can, of course?"
Marley looked eagerly at his visitor. A cold chill was playing upand down Steel's spine. Not to save his life could he account forthose notes.
"We will discuss that when the proper time comes," he said, with fineindifference.
"As you please, sir. From information also received I took the case toWalen's, in West Street, and asked Mr. Walen if he had seen the casebefore. Pressed to identify it, he handed me a glass and asked me to findthe figures (say) '1771. x 3,' in tiny characters on the edge. I did soby the aid of the glass, and Mr. Walen further proceeded to show me anentry in his purchasing ledger which proved that a cigar-case ingun-metal and diamonds bearing that legend had been added to the stockquite recently--a few weeks ago, in fact."
"Well, what of that?" David asked, impatiently. "For all I know, the casemight have come from Walen's. I said it came from a friend who must needsbe nameless for services equally nameless. I am not going to deny thatWalen was right."
"I have not quite finished," Marley said, quietly. "Pressed as to whenthe case had been sold, Mr. Walen, without hesitation, said: 'Yesterday,for L72 15s.' The purchaser was a stranger, whom Mr. Walen is preparedto identify. Asked if a formal receipt had been given, Walen said that ithad. And now I come to the gist of the whole matter. You saw Dr. Crosshand me a mass of papers, etc., taken from the person of the gentlemanwho was nearly killed in your house?"
David nodded. His breath was coming a little faster. His quick mind hadrun on ahead; he saw the gulf looming before him.
"Go on," said he, hoarsely, "go on. You mean to say that--"
"That amongst the papers found in the pocket of the unfortunate strangerwas a receipted bill for the very cigar-case that lies here on the tablebefore you!"