by Hugh Ashton
“ We will no doubt see in good time,” he smiled. “ In any event, I feel that we will now be able to trace the path of Lady Celia’s nocturnal excursions. I do not expect them to commence immediately that on Sir Godfrey’s departure from the metropolis, but I do not expect you will object to a few nights’ inconvenience in a good cause while we watch and wait, eh, Watson ? ”
“ You mean to watch Amberfield House and follow this mysterious four-wheeler to its destination when it makes an appearance ? ”
“ I do indeed. I trust you will keep me company ? ”
“ Indeed I will,” I replied warmly. “ If for no other reason than that my curiosity is aroused by this case.”
-oOo-
IN THE EVENT, we had four fruitless nights of waiting before our patience was rewarded. For those four nights we had concealed ourselves in the shadows of the square facing Amberfield House, watching for any entrance or exit. A hansom cab was waiting in the street around the corner, prepared to follow our quarry, but we had drawn four successive blanks, the cabman accepting the sovereigns that Holmes pressed into his hand at the end of each watch with an air of amused resignation at what he perceived as our folly.
I myself was yet to be convinced that our vigils would produce a result, but at half past nine o’clock, on the fifth night, the four-wheeler of which Holmes had been informed drew up outside Amberfield House. Holmes gripped me by the shoulder and hissed in my ear, “ This is it, Watson. Inform the cabbie that we will be setting off in pursuit soon. I will join you immediately the carriage moves off with Lady Celia in it.”
I slipped round the corner and informed the drowsy driver to prepare himself. In a matter of minutes, Holmes came hurrying around the corner. “ Quick, cabby ! ” he called up as he swung himself into the cab. Follow that four-wheeler which is just taking the Marylebone-road.”
We were forced to drive at a good pace to keep up with our quarry, heading eastward along the Euston-road and the Pentonville-road, before turning into Finsbury, and driving along Green Lanes, by the side of the park there.
“ This is not an area where I would expect a gathering to be held for those of Lady Celia’s rank,” I exclaimed.
“ I agree. We are definitely moving in unexpected circles. Ha ! Stop here, cabbie,” he addressed himself to our driver, alighting from the cab, which halted some hundred yards away from our quarry, which had drawn up outside a row of suburban houses. The driver of the four-wheeler jumped down to open the door for his passenger. To my surprise, four women descended, all dressed in what appeared from this distance to be fashionable costume, and entered the house at the end of the row where the road crosses the small river, outside which the carriage had stopped. Once the door of the house had closed behind the visitors, the driver remounted his seat and drove away.
“ Four ? ” I could not refrain from exclaiming. “ Do you recognise any of them ? ”
“ The number came as a surprise to me also,” admitted Holmes. “ Lady Celia alone boarded the carriage at Amberfield House. The others were obviously already inside the carriage, and I cannot identify any of them in this light. One thing now seems certain, though.”
“ That being ? ”
“ This is no simple affaire. A woman conducting such a liaison does not bring her chaperones with her.”
“ Very true,” I answered. “ Then what is happening, do you think ? ”
“ It is impossible to tell at this point in the proceedings. We will make a note of the address of this house, and visit tomorrow, in the hope of obtaining some clues.”
We rejoined our cab, which carried us back to Baker-street.
“ Do you want me to come round and do the same tomorrow night ? ” asked the driver.
“ Thank you, no,” answered Holmes, “ but it is certainly possible I will require your services again.”
“ It’ll be a pleasure, sir,” the jarvey said in reply. “ I haven’t been given so much money for doing nothing for a long time.”
“ Excellent. If you can give me an address where I may contact you in the future, I would be obliged,” slipping the man a couple of sovereigns. “ And in the meantime, if you could pass the word around and make discreet enquiries about the four-wheeler we saw just which we followed to Finsbury, without mentioning my name or anything about me, you may be sure that such information will be rewarded.”
“ Very good, sir, I will see what I can find out.” He touched his hand to the brim of his cap and rattled off into the night.
“ Heigh-ho,” said Holmes to me, yawning. “ Tomorrow will see the resolution of the mystery.”
However, he was mistaken in this. In the morning we made our way to the house in Finsbury, and discovered the house to be adorned with a large notice proclaiming that the property was to let; a sign which we had not observed in the dark of the previous evening.
“ This is puzzling, indeed,” I remarked to Holmes. “ I am certain that this is the house which we visited last night, and yet it appears to be unoccupied.”
“ Curious,” he agreed. “ This is certainly the house at which the carriage stopped last night, and which the passengers entered. And the door was opened to them by someone who was already inside the house. Come, let us make our way to the letting-agent and make some enquiries about this place.”
Upon Holmes, in the character of a prospective tenant, enquiring of Mr. Johnstone, whose name was on the board outside the house, the house-agent was happy to inform Holmes of some details regarding the property.
“ It’s been up for rent for the past three years now, and there’s been a good number of people who’ve been interested in taking the place. But the problem is that the landlord, a Mr. de Vries, always seems to find some reason why he doesn’t want to let to them. If truth be told, I’d be more than happy to see the property off my books, as it’s more trouble than it’s worth for me to keep it there.”
“ No-one lives there at present ? ”
“ Not for the past three years. That’s when it came vacant, and Mr. de Vries came to us and signed the contract with us to advertise it to let. He’s asking a good fair price for it, too, but he insists on meeting the prospective tenants personally, and every blessed time there’s something that he doesn’t like about them. This one has children, and he doesn’t want children, that one works in a bank, and he doesn’t like bankers. Why, one time he even turned down an offer from a man because he didn’t like the shape of his hat, would you believe ? And it’s not for want of offering money, either. Some of those he has turned down have offered a good deal more than the money he’s asking.”
“ A strange sort of landlord,” Holmes agreed smilingly. “ I take it you would have no objection to our looking over the property ? ”
“ None whatsoever. But I have to warn you gentlemen that you are not likely to persuade Mr. de Vries to let the place to you. Would you like me to show you over the place ? ”
“ There will be no need for that, I think. We will look the place over and return the key to you in an hour or so. Will that be satisfactory ? ”
“ Indeed it will. I will just prepare you an order to view, in the event of any concerned citizen observing you entering an empty house.”
We walked back to the house, armed with the key and the piece of paper signed by Mr. Johnstone.
“ Once again, we come across a Dutch name,” Holmes mused aloud as we ascended the steps leading to the front door. “ First, we have a Visser involved with the paintings, and now a de Vries. A coincidence, or a connection ? ” He stopped short as we reached the door. “ Observe, Watson. Traces of some substance on the step here. It appears as though this has been deposited recently.” He bent and scraped some onto the point of his pen-knife, which he raised to his nostrils before sniffing. “ Tar, I think, Watson. As is used on ships, would you not say ? ” He held the knife towards me for my inspection.
I inhaled cautiously. “ Tar of a certainty, but I would hesitate to identify it so precisely. What
do you deduce from this ? ”
“ At present, nothing. Let us enter.”
As soon as we passed into the hallway of the house, I was struck by a feeling that the house was far from being deserted. There was an indefinable air to the rooms that told me that they had recently been occupied by a number of people. Holmes, too, appeared to be aware of this, as he stood in the centre of the hallway, his keen senses strained.
“ I am certain that you can sense it too,” he said to me. “ There is a faint, but distinct, smell of women’s perfume, is there not ? And again that smell of tar.”
I was unable to detect the odours to which Holmes was referring, but I followed him into one of the reception rooms at the rear of the house. The windows were covered by thick curtains, but it was possible to see in the gloom that the room was unfurnished, save for a large table, pushed against the wall and folded to take up as little space as possible. I moved to draw the curtain aside, but Holmes waved me back. “ I would sooner leave this house as we found it, as far as is possible,” he told me. “ We know that it is occupied to serve some purpose for which there is some reason for concealment, and I would sooner not have those using it to know of our interest in the place.” He stooped, and picked up a small round object, about one quarter of an inch in diameter, from the floor under the table.
“ What is it ? ” I asked.
“ It would appear to be a sequin, of the type commonly adorning women’s evening wear,” he replied. “ I am certain that this room was the centre of the activities that went on last night, whatever they may turn out to be. It is obvious that at least one of the women last night was here at some time.” He continued to search through the room, and turned his attention to the folded table itself. “ Now this, Watson, could prove to be of extreme importance,” he exclaimed, suddenly straightening and holding something aloft. “ This appeared to be wedged in the crack between the tabletop and the frame.”
“ I cannot see what it is that you are holding in this dim light,” I complained.
“ I will show you when we leave the house,” he replied. “ Let us make our way to the kitchen.”
Downstairs in the basement kitchen, we were greeted by the sight of half a dozen empty bottles that had once contained champagne. “ Nothing but the finest,” remarked my friend, picking up one of these bottles, and examining the label. “ And what do we have here ? ” turning to another square bottle lying beside the champagne bottles. “ Nothing more or less than Dutch genever, I do declare.”
“ But where are the glasses for the wine ? ” I asked. It was a question that demanded an answer, for the kitchen was completely bare, other than the empty bottles that we had seen. An examination of the cupboards and the pantry yielded no clues.
“ An excellent point,” agreed Holmes. “ It is hard to imagine the elegant society ladies whom we observed last night drinking from the bottle. Let us search the rest of the house.”
Some time later, we were forced to admit defeat. Other than two pieces of tarred twine which we discovered in the passage leading to the rear of the house, and what I have already described, the house appeared to be completely empty. “ It hardly seems natural for an empty house to contain as little as this,” I said.
“ It is indeed unnatural. The reason is that it is very carefully cleaned and emptied when it has been used for the purposes which we have yet to ascertain. This can be easily demonstrated by the pattern of the dust on the floor here and here, where it has obviously been brushed within the past few days.”
As he spoke, a sound came from the back door as if a key was being turned in the lock.
“ Quick ! Up the stairs as fast and as silently as you can manage ! ” Holmes hissed at me, suiting his own actions to the words. I followed, and as I reached the landing on the first floor, I heard the door open, and the sound of two pairs of footsteps, and two deep male voices. I strained to make out the words, but was unable to distinguish what was being said, though the tone appeared to be angry, and strong words appeared to be passing between the two speakers. The footsteps appeared to descend the steps to the kitchen and returned a minute or two later, accompanied by the clink of glass. The sound of the back door opening, then closing, followed by the sound of a key in the lock, met our ears. We waited in silence for a few minutes, and then made our way down the stairs cautiously.
“ I could not make out a word they were saying,” I remarked to Holmes.
“ For the excellent reason that they were not speaking English, and to the best of my knowledge you do not include proficiency in the Dutch tongue as one of your accomplishments,” he retorted.
“ Again, a Dutch connection ! ”
“ Indeed. Let us see if our Hollander friends, who by the sounds that we heard were responsible for removing the bottles that we discovered earlier, have left any traces of themselves behind them.”
At the back door, which was locked, we encountered a temporary obstacle, which Holmes deftly overcame by methods which were, I regret to say, not those which should be in the compass of a law-abiding citizen. He then dropped to his knees, and examined the cinder-strewn path with his ever-present lens. “ Square-toed boots of a peculiar pattern, typically that of a sea-boot,” he remarked, after peering at some indentations, which appeared indistinct to me. “ I think that at last I see some glimmering of light here.”
I was still mystified, but assisted Holmes in refastening the door, and we left the house.
“ What was it that you discovered in the table ? ” I enquired.
For answer he passed me a red disc, about one-eighth of an inch thick, and about two inches in diameter, with the numeral “ 5” emblazoned on it.
“ This appears to be the kind of counter that is used as money in casinos and gaming-houses,” I said.
“ I am sure that is exactly what it is,” replied Holmes. “ The inference is therefore that by night, the house we have just visited changes its character, and becomes a casino for wealthy gamblers.”
“ So Lady Celia’s guilty secret is that she is a gambler ? And she has been losing money, and selling the family treasures to pay the debts ? ”
“ I can think of few other alternative explanations. The question is, who is operating this little business, and how can they be prevented ? We can be certain that if Lady Celia has been driven to such extremities, she is not the only one. Who can tell what priceless objets have found their way into the hands of this gang, whoever they may be ? ”
“ It would seem likely that the gang is Dutch, though, would you not say ? ”
“ It is more than probable, I agree. And with the hints they have been kind enough to drop—the string, which was tarred, and tied in a knot that is peculiar to sailors, the footprint on the front step of the house, which deposited some tar, as used to caulk the decks of ships, and the imprint of a sea-boot on the path outside the back door, I think we can safely conclude that a ship is somehow involved in the carrying out of this business.”
“ In that case,” I offered, after a few minutes’ thought, “ it would seem likely that the times at which Lady Celia and the others visit the house coincide with the times at which a particular Dutch ship visits London. The times when she stays at home are those when the ship is away, possibly at its home port.”
Holmes stopped, and turned to face me. “ Excellent, Watson ! I do believe that you have hit upon a significant part of the answer there. This now begins to make more sense than it did before. It would seem that the perpetrators set up the casino every night, leaving the house empty in the daytime.”
“ It would seem to me that such a plan would create pointless labour on their part, though.”
“ Not so. Consider that they are conducting operations that are certain to draw the attention of the authorities if they are made public. What better place to conduct them than in a house which is known to be empty ? There is, of course, the risk that the customers may be observed entering or leaving, but I would wager that the purpose of th
e carriage that we saw last night is to reduce the number of people who know about the operation, and to ensure that all entrances and exits are made when the visitors will be unobserved. Note that there are no houses opposite us, and this house is the end of the row, with the river on one side. It is hard to imagine a more perfect location for such a business in the centre of London.”
“ And since the house is known to be empty, it is unlikely to be suspected of harbouring any such activities ? ” I suggested.
“ Precisely so. And the beauty is that the place is open to anyone, such as ourselves, for inspection upon request and always appears to be completely innocent. What better way can you imagine to deflect any trace of suspicion ? ”
“ How would the apparatus needed for the casino be moved to and from the house on a regular basis ? ” I asked.
“ My belief is that we overlooked one or two hiding-places. I think we may assume that there will be some false floorboards, false backs to the cupboards, and the like, where furniture may be stored and produced only when it is needed. Ah, we are here again.”
We had reached the offices of Johnstone, the agent, and we entered to return the key.
“ Well ? ” enquired Johnstone. “ How do you like the place ? I must warn you again, that even if it does take your fancy, it is more than likely that Mr. de Vries will come up with some reason why you are not a suitable tenant.”
“ He need not rack his brain for excuses in this case,” said Holmes. “ I fear that it would be unsuitable for my needs. In any event, it would seem that a good deal of work would be necessary, especially as regards the interior, before I could even consider taking a lease.”
“ Do you really think so ? ” replied the other. “ It is strange that you should be of that opinion, because if I recall correctly, the builders were called in to make renovations to the building only a little before Mr. de Vries placed the house on the market for letting.”
“ Well, well, that is my opinion only,” replied Holmes equably. “ I do not pretend to be an expert in these matters, after all. Maybe I could have a word with the firm that carried out the work ? ”