The Yellow Claw gm-1

by Sax Rohmer

  Then Mrs. Brian's voice mingled with that of her husband, and both became subdued. Finally, a slim man, who wore a short beard, or had omitted to shave for some days, appeared at the door of the living-room. His face was another history upon the same subject as that which might be studied from the walls, the floor, and the appointments of the room. Inspector Dunbar perceived that the shadow of the neighboring hostelry overlay this home.

  "What's up?" inquired the new arrival.

  The tone of his voice, thickened by excess, was yet eloquent of the gentleman. The barriers passed, your pariah gentleman can be the completest blackguard of them all. He spoke coarsely, and the infectious Cockney accent showed itself in his vowels; but Dunbar, a trained observer, summed up his man in a moment and acted accordingly.

  "Come in and shut the door!" he directed. "No"—as Mrs. Brian sought to enter behind her husband—"I wish to speak with you, privately."

  "Hop it!" instructed Brian, jerking his thumb over his shoulder—and Mrs. Brian obediently disappeared, closing the door.

  "Now," said Dunbar, looking the man up and down, "have you been into the depot, to-day?"

  "No."

  "But you have heard that there's an inquiry?"

  "I've heard nothing. I've been in bed."

  "We won't argue about that. I'll simply put a question to you: Where did you pick up the fare that you dropped at Palace Mansions at twelve o'clock last night?"

  "Palace Mansions!" muttered Brian, shifting uneasily beneath the unflinching stare of the tawny eyes. "What d'you mean? What Palace Mansions?"

  "Don't quibble!" warned Dunbar, thrusting out a finger at him. "This is not a matter of a loss of license; it's a life job!"

  "Life job!" whispered the man, and his weak face suddenly relaxed, so that, oddly, the old refinement shone out through the new, vulgar veneer.

  "Answer my questions straight and square and I'll take your word that you have not seen the inquiry!" said Dunbar.

  "Dick Hamper's done this for me!" muttered Brian. "He's a dirty, low swine! Somebody'll do for him one night!"

  "Leave Hamper out of the question," snapped Dunbar. "You put down a fare at Palace Mansions at twelve o'clock last night?"

  For one tremendous moment, Brian hesitated, but the good that was in him, or the evil—a consciousness of wrongdoing, or of retribution pending—respect for the law, or fear of its might—decided his course.

  "I did."

  "It was a man?"

  Again Brian, with furtive glance, sought to test his opponent; but his opponent was too strong for him. With Dunbar's eyes upon his face, he chose not to lie.

  "It was a woman."

  "How was she dressed?"

  "In a fur motor-coat—civet fur."

  The man of culture spoke in those two words, "civet fur"; and Dunbar nodded quickly, his eyes ablaze at the importance of the evidence.

  "Was she alone?"

  "She was."

  "What fare did she pay you?"

  "The meter only registered eightpence, but she gave me half-a-crown."

  "Did she appear to be ill?"

  "Very ill. She wore no hat, and I supposed her to be in evening dress. She almost fell as she got out of the cab, but managed to get into the hall of Palace Mansions quickly enough, looking behind her all the time."

  Inspector Dunbar shot out the hypnotic finger again.

  "She told you to wait!" he asserted, positively. Brian looked to right and left, up and down, thrusting his hands into his coat pockets, and taking them out again to stroke his collarless neck. Then:—

  "She did—yes," he admitted.

  "But you were bribed to drive away? Don't deny it! Don't dare to trifle with me, or by God! you'll spend the night in Brixton Jail!"

  "It was made worth my while," muttered Brian, his voice beginning to break, "to hop it."

  "Who paid you to do it?"

  "A man who had followed all the way in a big car."

  "That's it! Describe him!"

  "I can't! No, no! you can threaten as much as you like, but I can't describe him. I never saw his face. He stood behind me on the near side of the cab, and just reached forward and pushed a flyer under my nose."

  Inspector Dunbar searched the speaker's face closely—and concluded that he was respecting the verity.

  "How was he dressed?"

  "In black, and that's all I can tell you about him."

  "You took the money?"

  "I took the money, yes"…

  "What did he say to you?"

  "Simply: 'Drive off.'"

  "Did you take him to be an Englishman from his speech?"

  "No; he was not an Englishman. He had a foreign accent."

  "French? German?"

  "No," said Brian, looking up and meeting the glance of the fierce eyes. "Asiatic!"

  Inspector Dunbar, closely as he held himself in hand, started slightly.

  "Are you sure?"

  "Certainly. Before I—when I was younger—I traveled in the East, and I know the voice and intonation of the cultured Oriental."

  "Can you place him any closer than that?"

  "No, I can't venture to do so." Brian's manner was becoming, momentarily, more nearly that of a gentleman. "I might be leading you astray if I ventured a guess, but if you asked me to do so, I should say he was a Chinaman."

  "A CHINAMAN?" Dunbar's voice rose excitedly.

  "I think so."

  "What occurred next?"

  "I turned my cab and drove off out of the Square."

  "Did you see where the man went?"

  "I didn't. I saw nothing of him beyond his hand."

  "And his hand?"

  "He wore a glove."

  "And now," said Dunbar, speaking very slowly, "where did you pick up your fare?"

  "In Gillingham Street, near Victoria Station."

  "From a house?"

  "Yes, from Nurse Proctor's."

  "Nurse Proctor's! Who is Nurse Proctor?"

  Brian shrugged his shoulders in a nonchalant manner, which obviously belonged to an earlier phase of existence.

  "She keeps a nursing home," he said—"for ladies."

  "Do you mean a maternity home?"

  "Not exactly; at least I don't think so. Most of her clients are society ladies, who stay there periodically."

  "What are you driving at?" demanded Dunbar. "I have asked you if it is a maternity home."

  "And I have replied that it isn't. I am only giving you facts; you don't want my surmises."

  "Who hailed you?"

  "The woman did—the woman in the fur coat. I was just passing the door very slowly when it was flung open with a bang, and she rushed out as though hell were after her. Before I had time to pull up, she threw herself into my cab and screamed: 'Palace Mansions! Westminster!' I reached back and shut the door, and drove right away."

  "When did you see that you were followed?"

  "We were held up just outside the music hall, and looking back, I saw that my fare was dreadfully excited. It didn't take me long to find out that the cause of her excitement was a big limousine, three or four back in the block of traffic. The driver was some kind of an Oriental, too, although I couldn't make him out very clearly."

  "Good!" snapped Dunbar; "that's important! But you saw nothing more of this car?"…

  "I saw it follow me into the Square."

  "Then where did it wait?"

  "I don't know; I didn't see it again."

  Inspector Dunbar nodded rapidly.

  "Have you ever driven women to or from this Nurse Proctor's before?"

  "On two other occasions, I have driven ladies who came from there. I knew they came from there, because it got about amongst us that the tall woman in nurse's uniform who accompanied them was Nurse Proctor."

  "You mean that you didn't take these women actually from the door of the house in Gillingham Street, but from somewhere adjacent?"

  "Yes; they never take a cab from the door. They always walk to the corner of t
he street with a nurse, and a porter belonging to the house brings their luggage along."

  "The idea is secrecy?"

  "No doubt. But as I have said, the word was passed round."

  "Did you know either of these other women?"

  "No; but they were obviously members of good society."

  "And you drove them?"

  "One to St. Pancras, and one to Waterloo," said Brian, dropping back somewhat into his coarser style, and permitting a slow grin to overspread his countenance.

  "To catch trains, no doubt?"

  "Not a bit of it! To MEET trains!"

  "You mean?"

  "I mean that their own private cars were waiting for them at the ARRIVAL platform as I drove 'em up to the DEPARTURE platform, and that they simply marched through the station and pretended to have arrived by train!"

  Inspector Dunbar took out his notebook and fountain-pen, and began to tap his teeth with the latter, nodding his head at the same time.

  "You are sure of the accuracy of your last statement?" he said, raising his eyes to the other.

  "I followed one of them," was the reply, "and saw her footman gravely take charge of the luggage which I had just brought from Victoria; and a pal of mine followed the other—the Waterloo one, that was."

  Inspector Dunbar scribbled busily. Then:—

  "You have done well to make a clean breast of it," he said. "Take a straight tip from me. Keep off the drink!"

  Chapter 10 THE GREAT UNDERSTANDING

  It was in the afternoon of this same day—a day so momentous in the lives of more than one of London's millions—that two travelers might have been seen to descend from a first-class compartment of the Dover boat-train at Charing Cross.

  They had been the sole occupants of the compartment, and, despite the wide dissimilarity of character to be read upon their countenances, seemed to have struck up an acquaintance based upon mutual amiability and worldly common sense. The traveler first to descend and gallantly to offer his hand to his companion in order to assist her to the platform, was the one whom a casual observer would first have noted.

  He was a man built largely, but on good lines; a man past his youth, and somewhat too fleshy; but for all his bulk, there was nothing unwieldy, and nothing ungraceful in his bearing or carriage. He wore a French traveling-coat, conceived in a style violently Parisian, and composed of a wonderful check calculated to have blinded any cutter in Savile Row. From beneath its gorgeous folds protruded the extremities of severely creased cashmere trousers, turned up over white spats which nestled coyly about a pair of glossy black boots. The traveler's hat was of velour, silver gray and boasting a partridge feather thrust in its silken band. One glimpse of the outfit must have brought the entire staff of the Tailor and Cutter to an untimely grave.

  But if ever man was born who could carry such a make-up, this traveler was he. The face was cut on massive lines, on fleshy lines, clean-shaven, and inclined to pallor. The hirsute blue tinge about the jaw and lips helped to accentuate the virile strength of the long, flexible mouth, which could be humorous, which could be sorrowful, which could be grim. In the dark eyes of the man lay a wealth of experience, acquired in a lifelong pilgrimage among many peoples, and to many lands. His dark brows were heavily marked, and his close-cut hair was splashed with gray.

  Let us glance at the lady who accepted his white-gloved hand, and who sprang alertly onto the platform beside him.

  She was a woman bordering on the forties, with a face of masculine vigor, redeemed and effeminized, by splendid hazel eyes, the kindliest imaginable. Obviously, the lady was one who had never married, who despised, or affected to despise, members of the other sex, but who had never learned to hate them; who had never grown soured, but who found the world a garden of heedless children—of children who called for mothering. Her athletic figure was clothed in a "sensible" tweed traveling dress, and she wore a tweed hat pressed well on to her head, and brown boots with the flattest heels conceivable. Add to this a Scotch woolen muffler, and a pair of woolen gloves, and you have a mental picture of the second traveler—a truly incongruous companion for the first.

  Joining the crowd pouring in the direction of the exit gates, the two chatted together animatedly, both speaking English, and the man employing that language with a perfect ease and command of words which nevertheless failed to disguise his French nationality. He spoke with an American accent; a phenomenon sometimes observable in one who has learned his English in Paris.

  The irritating formalities which beset the returning traveler—and the lady distinctly was of the readily irritated type—were smoothed away by the magic personality of her companion. Porters came at the beck of his gloved hand; guards, catching his eye, saluted and were completely his servants; ticket inspectors yielded to him the deference ordinarily reserved for directors of the line.

  Outside the station, then, her luggage having been stacked upon a cab, the lady parted from her companion with assurances, which were returned, that she should hope to improve the acquaintance.

  The address to which the French gentleman politely requested the cabman to drive, was that of a sound and old-established hotel in the neighborhood of the Strand, and at no great distance from the station.

  Then, having stood bareheaded until the cab turned out into the traffic stream of that busy thoroughfare, the first traveler, whose baggage consisted of a large suitcase, hailed a second cab and drove to the Hotel Astoria—the usual objective of Americans.

  Taking leave of him for the moment, let us follow the lady.

  Her arrangements were very soon made at the hotel, and having removed some of the travel-stains from her person and partaken of one cup of China tea, respecting the quality whereof she delivered herself of some caustic comments, she walked down into the Strand and mounted to the top of a Victoria bound 'bus.

  That she was not intimately acquainted with London, was a fact readily observable by her fellow passengers; for as the 'bus went rolling westward, from the large pocket of her Norfolk jacket she took out a guide-book provided with numerous maps, and began composedly to consult its complexities.

  When the conductor came to collect her fare, she had made up her mind, and was replacing the guidebook in her pocket.

  "Put me down by the Storis, Victoria Street, conductor," she directed, and handed him a penny—the correct fare.

  It chanced that at about the time, within a minute or so, of the American lady's leaving the hotel, and just as red rays, the harbingers of dusk, came creeping in at the latticed widow of her cozy work-room, Helen Cumberly laid down her pen with a sigh. She stood up, mechanically rearranging her hair as she did so, and crossed the corridor to her bedroom, the window whereof overlooked the Square.

  She peered down into the central garden. A common-looking man sat upon a bench, apparently watching the labors of the gardener, which consisted at the moment of the spiking of scraps of paper which disfigured the green carpet of the lawn.

  Helen returned to her writing-table and reseated herself. Kindly twilight veiled her, and a chatty sparrow who perched upon the window-ledge pretended that he had not noticed two tears which trembled, quivering, upon the girl's lashes. Almost unconsciously, for it was an established custom, she sprinkled crumbs from the tea-tray beside her upon the ledge, whilst the tears dropped upon a written page and two more appeared in turn upon her lashes.

  The sparrow supped enthusiastically, being joined in his repast by two talkative companions. As the last fragments dropped from the girl's white fingers, she withdrew her hand, and slowly—very slowly—her head sank down, pillowed upon her arms.

  For some five minutes she cried silently; the sparrows, unheeded, bade her good night, and flew to their nests in the trees of the Square. Then, very resolutely, as if inspired by a settled purpose, she stood up and recrossed the corridor to her bedroom.

  She turned on the lamp above the dressing-table and rapidly removed the traces of her tears, contemplating in dismay a redness of her pr
etty nose which did not prove entirely amenable to treatment with the powder-puff. Finally, however, she switched off the light, and, going out on to the landing, descended to the door of Henry Leroux's flat.

  In reply to her ring, the maid, Ferris, opened the door. She wore her hat and coat, and beside her on the floor stood a tin trunk.

  "Why, Ferris!" cried Helen—"are you leaving?"

  "I am indeed, miss!" said the girl, independently.

  "But why? whatever will Mr. Leroux do?"

  "He'll have to do the best he can. Cook's goin' too!"

  "What! cook is going?"

  "I am!" announced a deep, female voice.

  And the cook appeared beside the maid.

  "But whatever—" began Helen; then, realizing that she could achieve no good end by such an attitude: "Tell Mr. Leroux," she instructed the maid, quietly, "that I wish to see him."

  Ferris glanced rapidly at her companion, as a man appeared on the landing, to inquire in an abysmal tone, if "them boxes was ready to be took?" Helen Cumberly forestalled an insolent refusal which the cook, by furtive wink, counseled to the housemaid.

  "Don't trouble," she said, with an easy dignity reminiscent of her father. "I will announce myself."

  She passed the servants, crossed the lobby, and rapped upon the study door.

  "Come in," said the voice of Henry Leroux.

  Helen opened the door. The place was in semidarkness, objects being but dimly discernible. Leroux sat in his usual seat at the writing-table. The room was in the utmost disorder, evidently having received no attention since its overhauling by the police. Helen pressed the switch, lighting the two lamps.

  Leroux, at last, seemed in his proper element: he exhibited an unhealthy pallor, and it was obvious that no razor had touched his chin for at least three days. His dark blue eyes the eyes of a dreamer—were heavy and dull, with shadows pooled below them. A biscuit-jar, a decanter and a syphon stood half buried in papers on the table.