CHAPTER XI
THE RUSSIAN BANK-NOTES
The three searchers into what was rapidly becoming a most complicatedmystery drove back to New Scotland Yard in a silence which lasted untilthey were set down at the door of the department whereat they hadinterviewed the high official. Celia Lennard was thoroughly upset; thesight of the dead woman had disturbed her even more than she let hercompanions see; she remained dumb and rigid, staring straight before heras if she still gazed on the white face set in its frame of dark hair.Allerdyke, too, stared at the crowds in the streets as if they wereabstract visions--his keen brain felt dazed and mystified by thisaccumulation of strange events. And Fullaway, active and mercurial thoughhe was, made no attempt at conversation--he sat with knitted forehead,trying to think, to account, to surmise, only conscious that he was upagainst a bigger mystery than life had ever shown him up to then.
The detective who had accompanied them to the mortuary conducted thethree straight back to his chief's office--the chief, noticing the effectof the visit on Celia, hastened to give her a chair at the side of hisdesk, and looked at her with a lessening of his official manner. Hesigned to the other two to sit down, and motioned the detective toremain. Then he turned to Celia.
"You recognized the woman?" he said softly. "Just so. I thought youwould, and I was sorry to ask you to perform such an unpleasant task butit was absolutely necessary. Now," he continued, taking up his bundle ofpapers again, "I want you to describe the man who met you and your maidon your arrival at Hull the other night. Of course you saw him?"
"Certainly I saw him," replied Celia. "And I should know him againanywhere--the scoundrel!"
The high official smiled and glanced at Fullaway.
"You are thinking, Miss Lennard, that the man you then saw is the man whoaccompanied your maid to the hotel in which she was found dead," he said."Well, that may be so--but it mayn't. That is why I want you to give usan accurate description of the man you saw. You described the maid verywell indeed. Now describe the man."
"I can do that quite well," said Celia, with assurance. "And I can tellyou the circumstances. The steamer--the _Perisco_--got into the river atHull about a quarter to nine and anchored off the Victoria Pier. Weunderstood that she couldn't get into dock just then because of the tide,and that we must go on shore by tender. A tender came off--some of thepeople on board it came on our deck. There was a good deal of bustle. Iwent down to my cabin to see after something or other. Lisette came to methere, evidently much agitated, saying that her brother had come off onthe tender to fetch her at once to their mother who was ill inLondon--dying. She begged to be allowed to go with him. Of course I saidshe might. She immediately picked up her suit-case and travelling coatout of our pile of luggage, and I went up with her on deck. She and theman--her brother, as I understood--got into a small boat which wasalongside and went straight off to the pier: the tender was not leavingfor shore for some time. And--that was the last I saw of her. It was alldone in a minute or two."
"Now--the man," suggested the chief softly.
"A young man--about Lisette's age, I should say--twenty-seven to thirtyanyway. Tallish. Dark hair, moustache, eyes, and complexion.Good-looking--in a foreign way. I had no doubt he was her brother--helooked French, though he spoke English quite well and without accent.Very respectably dressed in dark clothes and overcoat. He would havepassed for a well-to-do clerk--that type. I spoke to him--a few words. Hespoke well--had very polite, almost polished manners. Of course he washurried--wanting to get Lisette away--he said they could just catch thelast train to London."
The chief shook his head.
"Not the man who accompanied her to the Paddington Hotel," he said."Listen--this is the description of that man, as given to the police bythe landlady and her servants: 'Age, presumably between forty andforty-five years, medium height. Brown hair. Clean-shaven. Dressed ingrey tweed suit, over which he wore a fawn-coloured overcoat. Deerstalkerhat--light brown. Brown brogue shoes.' That, you see," continued thechief, "describes a quite different person. You do not recognize thedescription as that of any man you have ever seen in company with yourlate maid, Miss Lennard?"
"I never saw my maid in any man's company," replied Celia. "Since I firstengaged her we have not been much in London. I was in New York andChicago for a time last year; then in Paris; then in Milan and Turin;lately in Moscow and St. Petersburg. When we were at home, here inLondon, she certainly had time of her own--her evenings out, youknow--but of course I don't know with whom she spent them. No--I don'tknow any man answering that description."
The chief folded up his papers and restored them to his desk.
"Now that you are here," he said, "you may as well give me a fewparticulars about your doings on the _Perisco_, especially as they relateto Mr. James Allerdyke. When and where did you make his acquaintance?"
"On the steamer--a few hours after we left Christiania," replied Celia.
"Just as fellow-passengers, I suppose?"
"Quite so--just that. We sat next to each other at meals."
"Do you know where his cabin was on the steamer?"
"Yes, exactly opposite my own. He and I, I believe, were the onlypassengers who had cabins all to ourselves."
"Did he ever mention to you these valuables which Mr. Fullaway tells ushe was carrying to England!"
"No--never at any time."
"Did you see him leave the _Perisco_ for the shore?"
"Why, yes, certainly! As a matter of fact, he and I came ashore at Hulltogether, ahead of any other passengers. After Lisette had left thesteamer with her brother, I happened to come across Mr. James Allerdyke.I told him what had just occurred, and asked him if he would help meabout my things, as my maid had gone. He immediately suggested that weshouldn't wait for the tender, but should get a boat of our own--therewere several lying around. He said he was in a great hurry to get ashore,because he'd a friend awaiting him at the Station Hotel. So he got aboat, and his things and mine were put into it, and we left the steamer,and were rowed to the landing-stage, just opposite."
"And you, of course, carried your jewel-case--or what you believed to beyour jewel-case--the duplicate chest which you subsequently carried toEdinburgh?"
"Yes, of course--I had it in my hand when Lisette left, and, I never lefthold of it until I got into the hotel."
"Do you remember if Mr. James Allerdyke carried anything in his hand?"
"Yes, he carried a hand-bag. He had that bag in his hand when I met himon deck; he kept it on his knee in the boat, and in the cab in which wedrove to the hotel from the landing-stage; I saw him carrying it upstairsafter we got to the hotel. What is more, I saw him bring it into thecoffee-room later on, and place it on the table at which he had somesupper. I saw it again in his room when I went in there to look at theplans of the Norwegian estate which he had told me about. He didn't takethose plans out of that hand-bag; he took them out of a side flap-pocketin a suit-case."
"Did you have supper with him that night?"
"No--I was sitting at another table, talking to a lady who had been withus on the _Perisco_. A lot of _Perisco_ passengers--twenty, at least--hadcome to the hotel by that time."
"Did any of them join Mr. James Allerdyke--at his table, I mean?"
"I don't remember--no, I think not. He sat at a table, one end of whichadjoined the wall--he put the hand-bag at that end. I remember wonderingwhy he carried his bag about with him. But then I, of course, wascarrying what I believed to be my jewel-case."
"Did you see him talking to any of your fellow-passengers that night?"
"Oh, yes--to two or three of them--in the hall of the hotel. I didn'tknow who they were, particularly--except the doctor with the big beard. Isaw him talking to Mr. Allerdyke at the door of the smoking-room."
"Had you taken any special notice of your fellow passengers on board the_Perisco_?"
"No--not at all. They were just the usual sort of passengers--I wasn'tinterested in them. Of course, I talked to some of them, in the ordi
naryway, as one does talk on board ship. But I don't remember anythingparticular about them, nor any of their names, even if I ever knew theirnames. Of course I remember Mr. James Allerdyke's name, because of thebusiness talk."
The chief, who had been making shorthand notes of this conversation,paused for a moment, evidently considering matters, and then turned toCelia with a smile.
"Why did you leave the hotel at Hull so suddenly?" he asked. "I daresayyou had good reasons, but I should just like to know what they were, ifyou don't mind."
"I'd no reason at all," replied Celia, with almost blunt directness. "Atleast, if I had, they were only a woman's reasons. I was a bit upset atbeing left alone. I didn't like the hotel. I knew I shouldn't sleep. Itwas a most beautiful moonlight night, and I suddenly thought I'd like togo motoring. I knew enough of the geography of those parts to know if Imotored across country I should strike the Great Northern main linesomewhere and catch a train to Edinburgh in the early morning. So--I justcleared out."
"Ah--you see you had quite a number of reasons!" said the chief,smiling again. "Very well. Now then, before you go, Miss Lennard, Iwant you to do just one thing more which may be useful to us in ourwork." He turned to the detective. "Get those things," he said quietly."Bring the lot in here."
Celia made a little sound of distaste as the detective presently returnedto the room carrying in one hand a brown leather suit-case, and in theother a cardboard dress-box, to which was strapped a travelling-coat,lined with fur. Her face, which had regained its colour, paled again.
"Lisette's things!" she muttered. "Oh--I don't--don't like to see them!What is it you want?"
"We want you to identify them--and, if you will, to look them over,"replied the chief. "The cardboard box contains everything she was wearingwhen she went to the hotel in Eastbourne Terrace; the suit-case and coatare what she took in with her. Spread the things out on that side table,"he continued, turning to the detective.
"Let Miss Lennard look them over."
Celia performed the task required of her with dislike--it seemedsomehow as if she were inspecting the dead woman afresh. She hurriedover the task.
"All these things are hers, of course," she said. "That's the suit-caseshe had with her when she left me at Hull, and that's the coat I gaveher--and the other things are hers, too. Oh--I don't like looking atthem. Can't we go, please?"
"One moment," said the chief. "I wanted to tell you that amongst allthese things there is nothing that establishes the woman's identity--Imean in the way of papers or anything of that sort. There were no lettersin this case--not a scrap of paper. There is money in that purse--two orthree pounds in gold, some silver. There is her watch--a good goldwatch--and there are two or three rings she was wearing. Now we have onlymade a superficial examination of all these personal belongings--can you,as her mistress, suggest if she was likely to hide anything in herclothing, and if so, in what article? You might save us some trouble,Miss Lennard."
Allerdyke, who was more interested in Celia than in what was going on,saw a sudden gleam come into her eyes--her feminine spirit of curiositywas aroused. She hesitated, turned back to the side-table, pausedbefore the various articles laid out there, took up and fingered two orthree, and suddenly wheeled round on the men, exhibiting a quiltedhandkerchief case.
"There's something been sewn into the padding of this!" she said. "I canfeel it. Can any one lend me pocket-scissors or a penknife?"
The men gathered round as Celia's deft fingers ripped open the satincovering: a moment later she drew out a wad of folded paper and handed itto the chief. Fullaway and Allerdyke craned their necks over hisshoulders as he unwrapped and spread the bits of paper out before them.And it was Fullaway who broke the silence with a sharp exclamation.
"Bank-notes!" he said. "Russian bank-notes! And new ones!"
The Rayner-Slade Amalgamation Page 11