Books: Number Seventeen
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Louis Tracy >> Number Seventeen
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Winter grabbed the receiver unceremoniously.
"I am a representative of Scotland Yard, Mr. Handyside," he said. "If
ever you want work come to me, J. L. Winter, and I'll find you some.
Miss Forbes is vexed with me because I have stopped her from thanking
you, but compliments must wait. Will you go as quickly as possible to
the chief police station at Croydon? By the time you get there I'll be
in touch with the inspector in charge, and he will do the rest. You
understand? Goodby!"
Winter rang off. He smiled blandly at Evelyn.
"There's no opportunity now for sentiment," he explained. "Our
American friend will appreciate quick action far more than talk."
Then he tackled the telephone again and asked to be put through to the
Croydon police station.
"There must be no delay," he added. "This is an official call."
He was in touch with Croydon in a remarkably short space of time, and
soon was in communication with a police inspector.
"What's your name?" he demanded.
"Inspector Wilkins," came the surprised answer.
"Were you a sergeant at the time of the Surrey Bank robbery?"
"Yes; but what the--"
"I am Winter of Scotland Yard. Do you recognize my voice?"
"Well-- er--"
"Do you remember that nip of old brandy I gave you while we were
freezing in a drafty warehouse at three o'clock in the morning waiting
for the Smasher to come for his plant?"
"Yes. You're Mr. Winter right enough, sir."
"Good! I want you to believe what I'm going to tell you, as there is a
big job ahead. A gang of Chinese cutthroats have kidnaped a lady, wife
of the London banker, Mr. James Creighton Forbes. In a few minutes an
American, a Mr. Handyside, will be with you. He will point out the
house near Croydon to which the lady has been taken in a motor car.
Collect half a dozen plain-clothes men and two in uniform and go with
Mr. Handyside-- without attracting attention, of course. Surround the
house and arrest any one, especially any Chinaman, who attempts to
leave. Release the lady, and ask Mr. Handyside to escort her to her
home, 11 Fortescue Square, Belgravia. If she is very ill, which is
improbable, she should be taken to a hospital. In that event Mr.
Handyside should telephone Mr. Forbes. Occupy the farm and arrest any
one who comes there, no matter what the pretext, until Mr. Furneaux or
I arrive. I'll be with you in two hours. Tell Mrs. Forbes that her
daughter will set out from Eastbourne by the next train leaving after
6:30. Got all that?"
"Yes, sir! Are these Chinamen likely to show fight?"
"Better be prepared. But, after posting your sentries, I advise you
and the uniformed constables to rush the place. By the way, it will
save me some trouble if you phone the Yard and tell them exactly what
I have told you. Ask for Furneaux. If he is not in, instruct them to
leave a written record for him."
"I'll see to it, sir. Is that all?"
"Yes. Goodby! Meet you in two hours."
He whirled round on Theydon.
"Tell the manager to supply at once the best car to be had in
Eastbourne for love or money," he said. "I want something that is sure
to go and go fast."
The chief inspector, with full steam up, was energy personified. His
bulging eyes, his firm chin, his round fists, one clenching the
telephone instrument, the other resting on the table, were eloquent of
the man of action.
His pride had been sore stricken by the escape of Wong Li Fu when that
master scoundrel was actually in his grasp. But those powerful hands
of his were far-reaching, and it would go hard with the jiu-jitsu
expert when next they gripped his lithe frame.
Almost before Theydon had quitted the room Winter snapped-- there is
no other word for it-- literally snapped a question at Evelyn.
"What's your telephone number?"
She told him, and again the Eastbourne exchange was bidden exert
itself.
"That you, Mr. Forbes?" said the chief inspector, after a short wait.
"Yes."
"I am Winter, of Scotland Yard. I want to assure you that your wife
and daughter will be under your roof within the next three hours. Mrs.
Forbes will probably be escorted by a gentleman named Handyside, an
American. You owe him all possible thanks, because it is due to his
action alone that Mrs. Forbes will soon be rescued from captivity.
Yes, she was carried off from Beachy Head this afternoon by Wong Li
Fu, but, by the rarest good fortune, this Mr. Handyside, a friend of
Mr. Theydon's, was able to follow on the trail, and steps are now
being taken to free her. Your daughter will speak to you. I intervened
merely to vouch for it that an almost incredible story is true. By the
way, let no one know that Mrs. Forbes is in London. Warn your servants
not to speak of her return. One more word-- have you heard anything of
Furneaux?"
"I have not heard from or seen him since we parted outside Bow Street
police station. But, for Heaven's sake, what is this you tell me about
my wife?"
"Miss Forbes will give you all the particulars we possess. Be calm and
remain at home. You can best assist us by stopping within call. Mrs.
Forbes and the American should arrive first, possibly before 7:30. If
there is any hitch, which is unlikely, Mr. Handyside will telephone
you. Your daughter will tell you the hour she and Mr. Theydon should
reach Victoria. She will speak to you now. Excuse my abruptness. A lot
of things may happen before I retire for the night, and I have no time
to pick and choose my words."
Evelyn, able at last to pour out her soul in thanksgiving, nearly
broke down when she heard her father's voice.
"Oh, Dad," she wailed, "I've passed through a dreadful time since I
spoke to you shortly after five o'clock. I dropped as if I had been
shot when Mrs. Montagu, who was one of the picnic party, told me that
a man of foreign appearance, with a scar on the left side of his face,
and who said he was a doctor, came to Beachy Head and told poor mother
that I had sent for her."
She went on to relate such facts as were known to her, and was in the
midst of a sensational narrative when Theydon announced that a
high-powered touring car was in readiness.
"Won't you take us with you?" he said to Winter. "There is no train
from here till 7:30, and in a motor we should be well on the way to
London by that time."
Winter had anticipated some such request, and a prompt refusal was on
the tip of his tongue, when he recalled that he would pass through
Tunbridge Wells, whence an earlier train might be available. A glance
at the time table showed that a train left Tunbridge Wells at 7:15.
"Yes," he said. "I'll take you part of the way. Tell your father, Miss
Forbes, that you will arrive at London Bridge at 8:40. If you two
reach London by a different route I think you should be tolerably
safe."
"If any Chinaman shows up between here and Fortescue Square I'll shoot
him at sight," Theydon said, producing an automatic pistol.
"I wouldn't do that," smiled Winter. "You might bore a hole in some
perfectly innocent Celestial. But you won't be troubled. Wong Li Fu
carries out his own plans, and at present he is congratulating himself
on the possession of a valuable hostage. But, come along! How about a
wrap for you, Miss Forbes? We'll create a breeze, you know."
She ran into her mother's bedroom and came out with a fur coat and
motor veil, articles which, she had guessed correctly, her mother
would not be wearing for the short run to Beachy Head. The hotel
manager lent coats to the men, and they started, not without hearty
congratulations from several people in the porch, whose fears on Mrs.
Forbes's account Theydon had dissipated when he went out to order the
car.
Winter gave their thoughts a new direction when Theydon inquired what
means the authorities would adopt to rid the country of the
pestiferous gang which carried on its vendetta with such scant respect
for the law and order of Great Britain.
"Once we have Mr. and Mrs. Forbes and this young lady safely housed in
Fortescue Square, and protected, not only by their own servants but by
the Metropolitan Police, we will devote ourselves to routing out the
whole crew," he announced. "My idea is that when we lay hands on the
ringleader, the rest will be easy. Furneaux's prisoner, Len Shi, may
be got to talk when a Chinese interpreter tackles him. Again, there is
every prospect of an important capture being made in the Croydon
house. Most important of all is the prolonged absence from the yard of
Furneaux. He is busy, or he would have put in an appearance there
hours ago, if only to get to know my whereabouts. That means
something. Furneaux never wastes time. Usually we hunt in couples.
Today, by the fortune of war, we are separated, and perhaps
fortunately so. It is all your fault, Mr. Theydon."
"Mine?" was the astonished cry.
"Yes. We had to try all sorts of tricks on you before you would speak.
Just imagine Scotland Yard being compelled to tap the telephone of a
respectable and well-known author before he would own up to such
knowledge as he possessed of the murder in No. 17!"
So that was how Furneaux had played the necromancer, and was able to
mystify Theydon that morning.
The chief inspector, by raising the question, was touching on
dangerous ground, as he was well aware, but he was determined now that
all barriers should be thrown down. Evelyn Forbes was no
bread-and-butter miss from whose cognizance the evil things of life
must be sedulously averted. A, woman of spirit and intelligence, who
had already run the dreadful risk of sharing Mrs. Lester's fate,
should be made to understand every phase of the difficulty with which
the Criminal Investigation Department had yet to deal.
British law and Chinese anarchy would soon grapple in a life and death
conflict, and it was idle folly to suppose that, no matter how
reticent her friends might be, this sharp-witted girl would not find
out for herself the exact nature of the link which bound the fortunes
of her own family with those of the dead woman.
Theydon tried to pass off the detective's retort with a careless
laugh, but Evelyn reverted to the topic when they were seated in the
London-bound train after Winter had dropped them at Tunbridge Wells
Station.
"What did the chief inspector mean when he said you refused to help
him at first?" she inquired. "There are gaps in my history of this
affair. How did you come to know that my father was acquainted with
Mrs. Lester? Why did you seem, at one time, to be taking sides with my
father against a public inquiry by the police?"
Then, seeing there was no help for it, Theydon began at the beginning
and told the girl the full, true and unexpurgated story of events on
the Monday night. Once or twice, when he hinted at the cause of his
otherwise inexplicable actions-- which, quite obviously, lay in his
interest in the girl herself, she blushed a little and averted her
eyes. But she listened in silence, and did not speak during many
seconds after he had ceased.
Then she simply murmured:
"Poor, dear Dad! How worried he must have been! And how well he
concealed it from me!"
After another pause, she added:
"We are deeply in your debt, Mr. Theydon. When this ordeal is ended,
and those horrid men have been put in prison or driven out of the
country, our next difficulty will be to-- to thank you adequately for
what you have done."
Surgit amari aliquid! Even in life's pleasantest hours something
bitter arises. Theydon was in the company of the woman he loved, yet
no word of love could rise to his lips. In the first place he dared
not woo the daughter of a millionaire; in the second were his suit
even possible, he was far too honorable minded to take immediate
advantage of her disturbed state and the services he had undoubtedly
rendered, and give the slightest hint of his passion.
So he sighed and looked out of the window at a fast-flying vista of a
Kentish hillside, and contented himself by saying:
"For what little I have done, or attempted to do, I am already
rewarded far beyond my wildest dreams."
Even that was more than he meant to say. Glancing timidly at Evelyn to
see whether or not she resented his words, he was astounded to find
that she had blushed scarlet, and, in her turn, was absorbed in the
landscape.
Then he remembered that in the frenzy of the moment following the
report of her mother's capture by Wong Li Fu, he had kissed her. Had
he, or had he not? If not, why not now? But that way lay madness. And,
wretched doubt, was she already the promised bride of another man? It
was a relief when the train stopped at Sevenoaks.
When it moved on again, they were normal young people once more, and
discussed various features of the Young Manchus' raid on society as
though the extermination of political adversaries were a commonplace
occurrence in modern England.
At last, after a journey which lived long in their minds, since even a
prosaic train may follow the path to Wonderland, they arrived at
London Bridge, and hummed in a taxi through streets of gaunt
warehouses until the light of Westminster flashed on a Thames veiled
in the blue mystery of a Summer gloaming.
The cab had hardly halted outside the Fortescue Square mansion when
the door was thrown wide, and Tomlinson appeared, flanked by two
stalwart footmen. The butler's face was aglow with pleasure.
"It's all right now you've come, Miss Evelyn," he said joyfully. "Mrs.
Forbes arrived more than an hour ago."
But Tomlinson was in error. He did not know what tribulations loomed
already through the haze of the future, or he would have laid to heart
the time-honored advice to venturesome travelers:
"Never hallo till you're out of the wood!"
CHAPTER XII
NO SURRENDER
Mrs. Forbes, a slim, elegant woman, looked as if she were her
daughter's elder sister. Although driven by hay fever to the seaside
regularly at the beginning of the London season, she was far from
being a malade imaginaire. She did not go willingly. Each year she
hoped against hope that the annoying ailment would not make itself
felt, yet no sooner was the month of May well established than for six
or seven weeks she had either to drag her husband and daughter away
from the metropolis or live by herself in some South Coast hotel.
She had tried Brighton, whence Mr. Forbes could travel to the city,
but soon discovered that the daily train journey was not good for his
health. After that, she insisted on adopting the self-denying
ordinance of leaving Evelyn with her father in the town house from the
middle of May till the end of June, when all three went to the
Highlands.
She, of course, had not the remotest knowledge of the terrors
threatening her household; a thunderbolt out of a Summer sky would
have astonished her less than the indignities she endured when haled
away from Eastbourne in the luxurious car which Wong Li Fu had at his
command.
Theydon had been in the house nearly half an hour and was exchanging
experiences with Forbes and Handyside-- the latter, by virtue of his
extraordinary share in the day's adventures, being admitted to the
full confidence of the others-- when Evelyn brought her mother into
the library.
"Here is some one who positively refuses to retire for the night until
she has met you, Mr. Theydon," said the girl, radiant with joy and
relief, now that the shadow of death had passed, apparently forever,
leaving her dear ones unscathed.
Mrs. Forbes, an aristocrat to the finger tips, greeted her guest with
marked cordiality.
"I have been living during the past few hours like one of the
characters one sees in the fearsome little plays produced on the stage
of the Grand Guignol in Paris," she said, gazing at him with frank
brown eyes singularly like her daughter's, "but I have contrived to
gather one definite impression among the whirl of things, and that is
that were it not for Mr. Frank Theydon, my daughter and I would now be
in as bad a predicament as two women could possibly face anywhere."
"I was lucky enough to be of some little use, but Mr. Handyside is the
lion of today's contest," said Theydon.
"I am grateful to both of you, how grateful I can never find words to
tell, but Mr. Handyside rivals you in modesty, Mr. Theydon. He assured
me that you were the deus ex machina, though he obtained the machine
itself, and rode sixty miles to rescue me from my dragon. By the way,
where is the motor cyclist-- what is his name?"
"Jackson, ma'am," put in Handyside. "He went back to Eastbourne--
thought nothing of it. I fixed him all right. He's coming to London
next week. I've hired him for a trip round the island."
"In a side-car?" laughed Evelyn.
"No; I guess we'll run to something more roomy."
"Jim, dear," said Mrs. Forbes to her husband, "get Mr. Jackson's
address. Our thanks to him, at least, can take a tangible form. No,
Evelyn, I'm not going to bed. I mean to sit up and talk. I want to
hear everything. You men must smoke big strong cigars, please. If I
breathe tobacco smoke I shall not fancy I want to sneeze."
"I, for one, am simply aching to hear what happened to you," said
Theydon.
Mrs. Forbes was equally ready to retail her trials.
"When a man who resembled a tall and well-built Japanese came to me on
the Downs," she said, "I really believed him to be what he said he
was-- assistant to an Eastbourne doctor. I never dreamed he was
Chinese, not that it mattered at all where I was concerned, only one
becomes quite accustomed to meeting well-dressed Japanese men in
society, but hardly ever a Chinaman. I thought, too, I remembered his
face, which is quite possible, since my husband tells me that this
Wong Li Fu was once an attaché at the Chinese Embassy. He spoke
excellent English, with a strongly marked lisp; when he said that my
daughter wished to see me at the Royal Devonshire Hotel, and that a
Dr. Sinnett had sent a car for my convenience, I was mainly concerned
in getting him to admit the real cause of his presence, because I
naturally assumed that Evelyn had met with an accident. No sooner had
the car started than he seized my wrists, and gave them a queer twist,
which seemed to render me powerless for a few seconds. 'If you scream
or resist I hurt you-- so-- only very bad,' he said. I was that
astonished I hardly realized what was taking place before he had my
wrists and ankles strapped, tightly, but not painfully, and had placed
a gag in my mouth. 'Now, you keep quiet,' he said, and showed me a
horrible-looking knife, which he put on the seat between us. 'If you
move at all when we pass through towns,' he went on, 'I stick this
into you very deep.' Somehow, I knew that he meant to carry out his
threats to the letter. At first I was more angry than hurt or even
alarmed. Then I began to believe that I had fallen into the clutches
of a lunatic, and grew horribly afraid. I saw that we were following
the London road, and it oppressed me like a dreadful sort of nightmare
to be speeding through a familiar district, a countryside dotted with
the houses and estates of personal friends, and be unable to stir or
utter a sound. It seemed to be almost stupid to see policemen in the
streets of Tunbridge Wells, one of whom gazed into our car sharply,
because, I suppose, we were traveling rather fast, and feel that no
one could begin to guess at my predicament. You all appreciate the
fact, of course, that I knew nothing whatever of any quarrel between
my husband and a faction in China?"
"Your husband adopted the policy of the ostrich, Helena," said Forbes,
grimly. "It may or may not be a fable as regards ostriches-- I don't
know enough about them to feel certain, but it is unquestionably too
often true of mankind. I believed my head was hidden and imagined the
remainder of my body was safe in consequence. Now I learn that my
opponents have been tracking me steadily for half a year. The one fact
which stands out clearly above all others during the past forty-eight
hours is the phenomenal range and completeness of Wong Li Fu's plans."
"I didn't mean my comment as a reproach, dear," and Mrs. Forbes gave
him a look which told plainly that these two were lovers after many
years of wedded happiness. "Thank God, we have all escaped-- thus
far!"
"Oh, mother," laughed Evelyn nervously, "you are not anticipating more
horrors, are you?"
"A few hours ago I would have scoffed at any one who said that a
handful of Chinese could tear aside our cloak of civilized security as
though it were a spider's web," was the serious reply. "But I have
interrupted my own story. I began to think that I would be taken to
some awful den in the East End, and held there till some huge sum of
money was paid by way of ransom, when the car suddenly quitted the
main road and bumped over a rough surface. I knew I was near Croydon--
the last place I would have suspected as a brigands' stronghold. Then
we halted, and that wretched man lifted me out, carried me into a back
room of an old-fashioned house, put me in a fairly comfortable chair,
tied me in with ropes, and left me. I couldn't speak. I was looking at
a blank wall and smoke-stained ceiling. I was sure then that he was
after money, and began to calculate the time which must elapse before
my husband would hear from him and arrange for my release. I wondered
how much he would ask-- ten, twenty, fifty thousand pounds. How much
would you have paid, Jim?"
Mrs. Forbes took her trials so cheerfully that they all laughed.
"That's hardly a fair question, is it?" she continued, stealing
another glance at her husband. "At any rate, being a banker's wife, I
knew how extraordinarily difficult it would be to raise any
considerable sum of gold at such a late hour, and I resigned myself to
remaining a prisoner all night. Then I think I wept a little, but not
for long, because I felt that they meant to keep me alive, and as I
look more delicate than I really am, even a Chinaman would see that he
was taking some risk by denying me food and all liberty of movement.
Then-- very soon, it seemed-- I heard an outer door being forced off
its hinges and English voices, and the door of my room was broken
open, and I saw a police inspector and some constables. Hitherto I
have never properly appreciated our policemen. From this day I become
their most ardent admirer and enthusiastic helper. I could have gone
down on my knees to those big, kind-looking men in uniform. In fact I
nearly did. When they released me I could hardly stand. After that,
Mr. Handyside came, and accompanied me here, with a detective sitting
next the driver, and my husband and Evelyn have told me something of
the extraordinary things which have been going on in London while I
was gadding about at Eastbourne."
"Was the detective a man named Furneaux?" inquired Theydon.
Mrs. Forbes hesitated, and her husband answered for her, as he alone,
among the members of the household, had met the Jersey man.
"No," he said. "He belonged to the Croydon force, and was sent as an
escort. Furneaux seems to have been swallowed alive since three
o'clock. Everybody is inquiring for him, and no one appears to know
anything about him."
"I wonder whether Wong Li Fu is aware I have been liberated?" said
Mrs. Forbes. "It's rather odd, is it not, that nothing has been heard
from him or his gang if I was to be held a prisoner in order to extort
terms?"
"I fancy he meant to add significance to his demand for a reply by
advertisement in tomorrow's Times," said Forbes. "You see, Helena, he
meant to carry off Evelyn as well as you."
Mrs. Forbes smiled again at that.
"What in the world should each of us have thought if we had both been
bound and gagged in that car?" she cried.
"I know what I think," said her husband emphatically. "You are going
straight to bed now, and you'll take ten grains of bromide before
lying down. Evelyn, I appoint you nurse. Don't leave your mother till
she is sound asleep."
Mrs. Forbes rose at once. She admitted, though reluctantly, that a
night's rest was necessary to steady her nerves.
"Ah!" she sighed, "I shall be so glad when all this turmoil is ended,
and we are settled for the season in Sutherland."
"Sutherland, ma'am," inquired Handyside. "Isn't that in the far north
of Scotland?"
"Yes."
"It would be, just as the North Foreland is in Kent."
Theydon explained his friend's theory of geographical names in the
British Isles, and on that lightly humorous note the ladies
disappeared. When they were gone Forbes quickly gave a sinister turn
to their talk. He produced a letter from his pocket.
"Listen to this," he said.
"Y. M. is pleased to inform James Creighton Forbes that Mrs. Forbes is
a prisoner, and will remain, without food or drink and unable to move,
in an empty house until Y. M.'s demands are granted."
His face was white with fury while he read, and his fingers moved
convulsively as if he could feel them twining around Wong Li Fu's
throat. The other men maintained a sympathetic silence. They
understood why that ghastly message had been withheld from the
cognizance of the lady who had just quitted them.
"It was delivered by a messenger boy shortly before you arrived,
Theydon," said Forbes, when his passion had subsided and he could
trust his voice again.
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