CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
MR. MORI YADA
Ayscough was on his guard as soon as he saw that smile. He had had someexperience of various national characteristics in his time, and he knewthat when an Eastern meets you with a frank and smiling countenance youhad better keep all your wits about you. He began the exercise of hisown with a polite bow--while executing it, he took a rapid inventory ofMr. Mori Yada. About--as near as he could judge--two or three andtwenty; a black-haired, black-eyed young gentleman; evidentlyfastidious about his English clothes, his English linen, his Englishties, smart socks, and shoes--a good deal of a dandy, in short--and,judging from his surroundings, very fond of English comfort--and notaverse to the English custom of taking a little spirituous refreshmentwith his tobacco. A decanter stood on the table at his elbow; a syphonof mineral water reared itself close by; a tumbler was within reach ofMr. Yada's slender yellowish fingers.
"Servant, sir!" said Ayscough. "Detective Sergeant Ayscough of theCriminal Investigation Department--friend of mine, this, sir, Mr. Yada,I believe--Mr. Mori Yada?"
Mr. Yada smiled again, and without rising, indicated two chairs.
"Oh, yes!" he said in excellent English accents. "Pleased to seeyou--will you take a chair--and your friend! You want to talk to me?"
Ayscough sat down and unbuttoned his overcoat.
"Much obliged, sir," he said. "Yes--the fact is, Mr. Yada, I called tosee you on a highly important matter that's arisen. Your name, sir, wasgiven to me tonight by one of the junior house-surgeons at the hospitalup the street--Dr. Pittery."
"Oh, yes, Dr. Pittery--I know," agreed Yada. "Yes?"
"Dr. Pittery tells me, sir," continued Ayscough, "that you know twoChinese gentlemen who are fellow-students of yours at the hospital, Mr.Yada?"
The Japanese bowed his dark head and blew out a mouthful of smoke fromhis cigar.
"Yes!" he answered readily, "Mr. Chang Li--Mr. Chen Li. Oh, yes!"
"I want to ask you a question, Mr. Yada," said Ayscough, bendingforward and assuming an air of confidence. "When did you see those twogentlemen last--either of them?"
Yada leaned back in his comfortably padded chair and cast his quickeyes towards the ceiling. Suddenly he jumped to his feet.
"You take a little drop of whisky-and-soda?" he said hospitably,pushing a clean glass towards Ayscough. "Yes--I will get another glassfor your friend, too. Help yourselves, please, then--I will look in mydiary for an answer to your question. You excuse me, one moment."
He walked across the room to a writing cabinet which stood in onecorner, and took up a small book that lay on the blotting-pad; while heturned over its pages, Ayscough, helping himself and Melky to a drink,winked at his companion with a meaning expression.
"I have not seen either Mr. Chang Li or Mr. Chen Li since the morningof the 18th November," suddenly said Yada. He threw the book back onthe desk, and coming to the hearthrug, took up a position with his backto the fire and his hands in the pockets of his trousers. He noddedpolitely as his visitors raised their glasses to him. "Is anything thematter, Mr. Detective-Sergeant?" he asked.
Ayscough contrived to press his foot against Melky's as he gave adirect answer to this question.
"The fact of the case is, Mr. Yada," he said, "one of these two youngmen has been murdered! murdered, sir!"
Yada's well-defined eyebrows elevated themselves--but the rest of hisface was immobile. He looked fixedly at Ayscough for a second ortwo--then he let out one word.
"Which?"
"According to Dr. Pittery--Chen Li," answered Ayscough. "Dr. Pitteryidentified him. Murdered, Mr. Yada, murdered! Knifed!--in the throat."
The reiteration of the word murdered appeared to yield the detectivesome sort of satisfaction--but it apparently made no particularimpression on the Japanese. Again he rapped out one word.
"Where?"
"His body was found in the garden of the house they rented in MaidaVale," replied Ayscough. "Molteno Lodge. No doubt you've visited themthere, Mr. Yada?"
"I have been there--yes, a few times," assented Yada. "Not very lately.But--where is Chang Li?"
"That's what we don't know--and what we want to know," said Ayscough."He's not been seen at the hospital since the 20th. He didn't turn upthere--nor Chen, either, at a class, that day. And you say you haven'tseen them either since the 18th?"
"I was not at the hospital on the 19th," replied Yada. He threw awaythe end of his cigar, picked up a fresh one from a box which stood onthe table, pushed the box towards his visitors, and drew out a silvermatch-box. "What are the facts of this murder, Mr. Detective-Sergeant?"he asked quietly. "Murder is not done without some object--as a rule."
Ayscough accepted the offered cigar, passed the box to Melky and whilehe lighted his selection, thought quietly. He was playing a game withthe Japanese, and it was necessary to think accurately and quickly. Andsuddenly he made up his mind and assumed an air of candour.
"It's like this, Mr. Yada," he said. "I may as well tell you all aboutit. You've doubtless read all about this Praed Street mystery in thenewspapers? Well, now, some very extraordinary developments have arisenout of the beginnings of that, it turns out."
Melky sat by, disturbed and uncomfortable, while Ayscough reeled off acomplete narrative of the recent discoveries to the suave-mannered,phlegmatic, calmly-listening figure on the hearthrug. He did notunderstand the detective's doings--it seemed to him the height of follyto tell a stranger, and an Eastern stranger at that, all about the factthat there was a diamond worth eighty thousand pounds at the bottom ofthese mysteries and murders. But he discharged his own duties, andwatched Yada intently--and failed to see one single sign of anythingbeyond ordinary interest in his impassive face.
"So there it is, sir," concluded Ayscough. "I've no doubt whatever thatChen Li called at Multenius's shop to pay the rent; that he saw thediamond in the old man's possession and swagged him for it; thatParslett saw Chen Li slip away from that side-door and, hearing ofMultenius's death, suspected Chen Li of it and tried to blackmail him;that Chen Li poisoned Parslett--and that Chen Li himself was knifed forthat diamond. Now--by whom? Chang Li has--disappeared!"
"You suspect Chang Li?" asked Yada.
"I do," exclaimed Ayscough. "A Chinaman--a diamond worth every penny ofeighty thousand pounds--Ah!" He suddenly lifted his eyes to Yada with aquick enquiry. "How much do you know of these two?" he asked.
"Little--beyond the fact that they were fellow-students of mine,"answered Yada. "I occasionally visited them--occasionally they visitedme--that is all."
"Dr. Pittery says they weren't brothers?" suggested Ayscough.
"So I understood," assented Yada. "Friends."
"You can't tell us anything of their habits?--haunts?--what theyusually did with themselves when they weren't at the hospital?" askedthe detective.
"I should say that when they weren't at the hospital, they were attheir house--reading," answered Yada, drily. "They were hard workers."
Ayscough rose from his chair.
"Well, much obliged to you, sir," he said. "As your name was mentionedas some sort of a friend of theirs, I came to you. Of course, most ofwhat I've told you will be in all the papers tomorrow. If you shouldhear anything of this Chang Li, you'll communicate with us, Mr. Yada?"
The Japanese smiled--openly.
"Most improbable, Mr. Detective-Sergeant!" he answered. "I know no morethan what I have said. For more information, you should go to theChinese Legation."
"Good idea, sir--thank you," said Ayscough.
He bowed himself and Melky out; once outside the street-door he drewhis companion away towards a part which lay in deep shadow. Somerepairing operations to the exterior of a block of houses were going onthere; underneath a scaffolding which extended over the sidewalkAyscough drew Melky to a halt.
"You no doubt wondered why I told that chap so much?" he whispered."Especially about that diamond! But I had my reasons--and particularlyfor telling him about its value."
"It isn't
what I should ha' done, Mr. Ayscough," said Melky, "and itdidn't ought to come out in the newspapers, neither--so I think!'Tain't a healthy thing to let the public know there's aneighty-thousand pound diamond loose somewhere in London--and as totelling that slant-eyed fellow in there--"
"You wait a bit, my lad!" interrupted Ayscough. "I had my reasons--good'uns. Now, look here, we're going to watch that door awhile. If the Japcomes out--as I've an idea he will--we're going to follow. And asyou're younger, and slimmer, and less conspicuous than I am, if heshould emerge, keep on the shadowy side of the street, at a safedistance, and follow him as cleverly as you can. I'll follow you."
"What new game's this?" asked Melky.
"Never mind!" replied Ayscough. "And, if it does come to following, andhe should take a cab, contrive to be near--there's a good many peopleabout, and if you're careful he'll never see you. And--there, now, whatdid I tell you? He's coming out, now! Be handy--more depends on it thanyou're aware of."
Yada, seen clearly in the moonlight which flooded that side of thestreet, came out of the door which they had left a few minutes earlier.His smart suit of grey tweed had disappeared under a heavy fur-collaredovercoat; a black bowler hat surmounted his somewhat pallid face. Helooked neither to right nor left, but walked swiftly up the street inthe direction of the Euston Road. And when he had gone some thirtyyards, Ayscough pushed Melky before him out of their retreat.
"You go first," he whispered, "I'll come after you. Keep an eye on himas far as you can--didn't I tell you he'd come out when we'd left? Bewary!"
Melky slipped away up the street on the dark side and continued totrack the slim figure quickly advancing in the moonlight. He followeduntil they had passed the front of the hospital--a few yards further,and Yada suddenly crossed the road in the direction of the UndergroundRailway. He darted in at the entrance to the City-bound train, anddisappeared, and Melky, uncertain what to do, almost danced withexcitement until Ayscough came leisurely towards him. "Quick! quick!"exclaimed Melky. "He's gone down there--City trains. He'll be offunless you're on to him!"
But Ayscough remained quiescent and calmly relighted his cigar.
"All right, my lad," he said. "Let him go--just now. I've seen--what Iexpected to see!"
The Orange-Yellow Diamond Page 29