CHAPTER XV
A CLUE AT LAST
IMMEDIATELY Forrest had made his dramatic announcement, I glanced atEvie, for in view of the apprehension she had exhibited earlier in theevening, I was just a little doubtful as to whether she would takekindly to the renewal of my attempts to catch the Pirate. To mysatisfaction, she exhibited no signs of trepidation, if she did notappear altogether delighted that I was to have another opportunity ofdistinguishing myself. In fact as soon as the detective had followedColonel Maitland from the room, she told me that she was glad.
"I don't fear for you a scrap, Jim. At least not much," she said. "Iknow you won't do anything foolish, for my sake."
I interrupted with, "Nor for my own."
"And do you know," she continued, "I have a queer sort of impressionthat when the Pirate is captured, this horrible depression which hasbeen hanging over me will disappear altogether."
"Then captured he must be without delay," I said.
"Though I don't see how Mannering will be affected thereby."
"I am not so sure about that," said Evie.
"You surely cannot think that Mannering is in any way connected with theMotor Pirate?" I inquired in surprise, for any such idea had long passedfrom my mind.
"I don't know," she remarked dreamily; "I don't know. But I should notbe surprised. I really could believe anything about him."
I reminded her of the steps Forrest had taken to assure himself thatthere were no grounds for such a suspicion, but she was not convinced;so I forbore to continue the discussion, changing the conversation tothe arrangements to be made for her proposed visit to Norfolk. It wasdecided that I should write at once to my aunt, and that she should beready to start the moment I received a reply. We had settled all thepreliminaries by the time the Colonel and Forrest returned, and I badeher good night, feeling quite easy in my mind.
"I am delighted to be able to congratulate you," said Forrest, themoment we were outside.
"I am the luckiest man in the world," I replied.
"You are," returned the detective, emphatically. "All the same, I shouldnot have been sorry if Miss Maitland had stuck to her intention ofrefusing to listen to you until after the capture of the Pirate."
"Why?" I demanded.
"For purely selfish reasons," he replied. "I take it you will not be sokeen on the chase. Men in your position don't take risks."
I held out my hand to him. "Put your fist in that," I said. "What I havepromised, I stick to; and, to tell the truth, I was never keener onanything in my life."
"That's good news for me," he answered, and I could tell from his tonethat he meant it. Besides, he was not a man given to the paying of idlecompliments.
We were walking quietly towards my cottage as we talked, and the impulsecame upon me to confide to him the presentiment which Evie had in regardto the capture of the Pirate relieving her from her burden of fear. Thatnecessitated my explaining as well as I could the curious influencewhich Mannering exercised over her. Forrest listened attentively.
"Curious," he muttered, when I had finished. "It is very curious thatthe fellow should have produced such an impression on Miss Maitland. Bythe way, he was not at the Colonel's to-night."
"No," I replied.
"I wonder----" he began. He never finished the sentence, nor did hespeak again until he reached my door. There he paused, and said lightly,"I think I should like to discover whether the disappointed lover is athome to-night. Are you prepared for a little amateur burglary,Sutgrove?"
"Ready for anything," I assured him.
"It seems a little absurd to suspect Mannering," he remarkedmeditatively. "Yet there are times when a woman's intuition is a betterguide than a man's ratiocination."
"You didn't get any clue in Amsterdam, then?" I asked tentatively, for Iwas curious to hear the results of his journey.
"No, no. Nothing at all in Holland."
"If Mannering were the Pirate, and had tried to dispose of his plunderthere, you would in all probability have caught him; but he wouldscarcely have chosen to go abroad at the same time as yourself," Iremarked.
Forrest emitted a long, low whistle. "By Jove!" he said. "Then it wasindeed he whom I saw in Vienna."
"In Vienna?" I queried.
"When did he leave England?" asked the detective, ignoring my question.
"The very day you left," I replied promptly.
"Come, this is getting interesting," he said. "Tonight we will mostcertainly let the Pirate do his worst on the roads. We will look for aclue to the mystery of his identity nearer home." He looked at hiswatch. "It's a little too early to pay our call, so if you don't mind, Iwill come in and we can discuss the matter at leisure."
To say that Forrest's enigmatic utterances filled me with excitement,very inadequately expresses the state of my mind. He followed meindoors, and, while I mixed a drink for each of us, he saw that thewindows and doors were closed. Then seating himself in an easy chair, heselected a cigar and remarked--
"Now we can talk."
"I thought you only intended to go to Amsterdam," I began.
"That was my intention," he replied. "But before giving you the resultsof my inquiries--it won't take long, by the way--I should like to askyou one or two questions, if I may?"
"Fire away," I said.
"Did you mention to any one where I had gone?"
"Not to a soul. At least certainly not at the time, though I haveprobably mentioned the matter to Miss Maitland since."
"Oh, you young lovers!" he interjected.
"She would not speak of the matter, I know. I gave out to every one elsethat you had been recalled to London."
"Anyway, it would not have mattered if she had, as Mannering left on thesame day as myself. Where did he say he was going?"
"He said he was bound for Paris on business connected with some patentshe was applying for. He told us he would be absent for two or threedays; and as a matter of fact, he was away for ten."
"That would about fit in," remarked the detective, after a moment'sthought. "But of that you shall judge for yourself." He moistened hislips and pulled at his cigar until it was well alight, and then hecommenced his story.
"I carried out my original intention, and the night after I left you Icaught the 8.30 at Liverpool Street. The next morning I was inAmsterdam. I stayed there three days, until I was quite convinced thatno such parcel of diamonds as had been stolen had been offered for saleto any of the Dutch dealers. I could not have failed to hear of it ifany such attempt had been made. While there I had the good fortune tomake the acquaintance of a Russian agent, whose work I fancy must havebeen largely political. Ivan Stroviloff his name was, and he hadacquaintances in most European capitals. I discussed the matter withhim. He thought that an attempt to dispose of the stones was much morelikely to be made in Vienna or St. Petersburg than anywhere else exceptParis. I was aware of our agents in Paris having been fully informed,and I knew it was not worth my while to go there; but beyond notifyingthe Austrian police, I doubted whether any steps had been taken inregard to Vienna, so I determined to proceed to the Austrian capital.Stroviloff proved a very decent fellow, rather an exception to thegeneral run, for I don't take to those Russian agents as a rule; and asI was able to give him a few hints and some introductions over here--hewas going on to London--he gave me in return letters to some of hiscolleagues in Vienna and Petersburg, thinking they would probably be ofmore use to me than application through the usual official channels.Well, I went on to Vienna. I won't weary you with a history of myfruitless inquiries, it would take far too much time. Anyhow, I did findeventually that a parcel of diamonds had been disposed of there, and, asStroviloff had predicted, I obtained the information through one of theRussian agents and not through the Viennese police. I will say that I donot see how the latter could have helped me, for the purchaser was therepresentative of a Petersburg house who happened to be in Vienna forthe purpose of attending the sale of the Princess Novikoff's jewels--youprobably saw all about i
t in the papers."
It was a remarkable sale, and the extraordinary prices realized areprobably fresh in most people's memories. I told Forrest I had seenaccounts of it, and he continued.
"Unfortunately I did not get the information until after therepresentative in question had returned to Petersburg. There was nothingleft for me to do but to follow him there if I wanted to satisfy myselfas to whether the stones of which I had heard were really the onesstolen from the mail. It was rather like a wild goose chase, but I went.It was the day before I started that I saw the man who reminded me soforcibly of your friend Mannering. It was a very fleeting glimpse of aface which looked in at the door of a restaurant where I happened to bedining, and I should not like to swear that it was he whom I saw. At thetime, I put my fancy down to one of those casual likenesses whichsometimes lead even keen observers to accost total strangers in thestreets as acquaintances. The likeness was, however, undeniable, inspite of something strange about his appearance. However, I paid noattention to the incident, and the next morning I was on my way toPetersburg. There I found no difficulty in obtaining full particularsfrom the dealer. I have no doubt but that he has purchased the stoneswhich were stolen from the Brighton mail. In size, weight, and qualitythey answered to the description perfectly. I learned from him that theman from whom he had bought the stones had been introduced to him by awell-known Viennese jeweller. The price asked, though not very greatlybelow market value, was low enough to tempt him to purchase. The man whooffered them suggested that payment should be made, not to himself, butto his firm in Amsterdam. The transaction seemed in every way _bonafide_, the explanation as to the low price being that the Amsterdam firmwas rather pressed for cash, and so compelled to realize some of itsstock, but was unable to do so in Amsterdam for fear of jeopardizing itscredit. The man who sold the stones gave the name of Josef Hoffman, andthe merchant produced his card which bore the name of Jacob Meyer andMeyer, and an address in the De Jordaan, Amsterdam. He was described tome as a tall, powerful, fresh-coloured, fair-haired German, of pleasantmanners and address. The Petersburg merchant's representative had givenhim a draft on an Amsterdam bank and, on reaching the Russian capital,after examining the stones, his employer had authorized the payment ofthe draft by telegraph.
"As soon as I obtained these particulars, I started once more for theDutch city without wasting much time. Needless to say, I was too late tocatch my man. The office in the De Jordaan I found to be a room whichhad been taken for a week or two, and then vacated, by a person whom Ieasily identified as the fair-haired German. The draft had beenexchanged for a draft on the banker's London agents by the same man. Icame on to London immediately, but Hoffman, or whatever his name may be,was a week ahead of me. I traced him to the London bank where he hadcashed his draft. He did it in the coolest manner imaginable. He left itone day saying that he required gold, and that if they would get theamount ready--it was over L4000--he would call for it the next day. Heactually allowed two days to elapse before doing so. Then he came in acab with a handbag and took away the gold. That at present is as far asI have got. I only learned the last of these particulars this afternoon,and of course I went at once to the Yard to make my report and toarrange for the circulation of the description of the fair-haired Germanthroughout the country. Then I came on to you."
Forrest finished his drink and stood up. "Now you know as much about thecase as I do," he remarked, "and I fancy it is about time for us to payour proposed visit to our friend Mannering."
"I don't see how you can connect him in any way with Hoffman," I said,as I rose from my seat.
Forrest smiled. "I omitted to tell you one thing," he observed. "I couldnot see the hair of the man in Vienna whose face seemed familiar to me.But one thing I did remark. The man with Mannering's face wore a fairmoustache."
"But Mannering's is dark," I argued. "It was dark when he went away anddark when he returned."
Forrest held up his hand mockingly. "In these days of scientificprogress nothing is easier than for the intelligent leopard to changehis spots. Ask the brunette when fashion decrees that fair hair is to beworn, and ask again of the blonde how she manages when the exigenciesdemand raven tresses."
That settled me. "There's only one thing more," I said. "When did youhear that the Motor Pirate was at work again?"
"At St. Albans. I called at the police office on my way here. He wasseen about ten o'clock this side of Peterborough and going north."
"It will be rather a sell if Mannering is at home," I remarked.
"He will not be at home," replied Forrest with conviction.
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