CHAPTER XXIV
AS the car swept around the deserted sea-front and through thescattered outskirts of the town, Crewe gradually increased the going,till by the time Staveley was left behind, and the Cliff road stretchedin front of them, his powerful car was driving along at top speed.The night was not dark for the time of year; the windings of the roadwere visible some distance ahead: from the cliffs the rollers of theincoming tide could be seen breaking into white froth on the rocksbelow.
"It has occurred to me that, for a man who was afraid of a Germaninvasion, old Lumsden selected a very bad hiding-place for his money,"said Marsland. "He could not have known of the reputation the Germansoldiers made for themselves in stealing French clocks in the war of1870."
"Perhaps not," replied Crewe. "But I do not think he intended to leavethe money in the clock when the Germans came. If he fled from the farmhe would have taken it with him. His object in hiding it in the clockwas to have it constantly under his eye."
The car mounted the hill to the cutting through the cliff road neartheir destination, and as the road dipped downwards Crewe slackened thepace. Both of them were looking across towards the farm on the left. Asit came into view Crewe exclaimed to his companion:
"Did you see that?"
"A light!" said Marsland excitedly.
"It is gone now; it was probably a match. There must be some one there.I wonder who it could be?"
"Perhaps it is Gillett. We will soon see."
"No, we will drive past. It may be some one who wants to escape beingseen. We will run the car off the road a little way down past the farm,then extinguish the lights and make our way back."
He increased the pace of the car so that if there was any one at thefarm it would appear that the car was going on to Ashlingsea. Theyboth kept their eyes on the house as the car sped past, but there wasno repetition of the flash of light they had seen. Less than half amile away Crewe shut off the engine, and carefully ran the car off theroad on to a grassy path. He extinguished the lights and jumped out ofthe car. He took an electric torch from his overcoat pocket and afterturning it on to see if it was in order he set off in the direction ofthe farm.
"We will not keep to the road, as there may be some one on the watch,"he said. "Follow me, I know my way across the fields."
He clambered over the gate of a field and set off at a run, withMarsland following him closely. He led the way over ditches and acrosshedges and fences until they reached the meadow at the side of thefarm. Before climbing the low, brick wall Crewe waited for Marsland.
"You watch the front of the house while I go to the back. If you seeany one challenge him in a loud voice so that I can hear you, and I'llcome to your assistance. If I want you I'll call out."
They climbed the wall and dropped noiselessly on to the grass. Crewewaited until Marsland had taken up his station behind a plum-tree inthe garden, and then crept towards the kitchen door. He stood outsidethe door listening intently for a few minutes, but as he heard no soundhe selected the right key from the bunch he had borrowed from Gillett,and turned the lock. He waited to see if the sound of the turning lockhad alarmed any one inside the house. Slowly he turned the handle,opened the door and stepped noiselessly into the kitchen.
A few minutes later Marsland heard him approaching him from the back ofthe house.
"Come quickly," he said. "Some one has been before us and found themoney, but he is coming back again."
Marsland silently followed Crewe along the side of the house to thekitchen, and into the room where the great grandfather clock stood.Crewe flashed the torch on it, and Marsland started back with a cryof astonishment. The wooden case had been smashed beyond repair. Ithad been hacked and splintered with a heavy weapon, which had not onlybattered in the front of the case, but smashed the back as well. Piecesof the wood had been pulled off and flung about the room. About thebottom of the broken case several sovereigns were lying.
"The treasure!" he cried. "It was here then. Has he got away with it?"
"Most of it, but not all of it," said Crewe. "See here!" He knelt downby the case, plunged in his hand, and drew forth a canvas bag whichclinked as he held it up. "This is the sort of bag that banks use forholding sovereigns--the banks put a thousand sovereigns into each bagand seal it up so as to render it unnecessary to count the coins everytime the bags are handled. There are four of these bags still here."
"But where are they hidden?" asked Marsland, in amazement. "Where didyou find this one? Wasn't it lying on the floor when you came in?"
"The old man devised a skilful hiding-place," said Crewe. "He fittedthe case with a false back, and stowed his treasure in between. Lookhere!"
He flashed the light around the interior of the case, and Marsland,looking closely, saw that the back of it, which had been smashed, wasa false one, skilfully let in about three inches in front of the realback. In the space between the two backs the eccentric old owner ofCliff Farm had concealed his treasure as he had obtained it from thebank.
"It's an ingenious hiding-place," said Crewe. "He laid the clock on itsface, took off the back, fitted his false slide into a groove, stackedin his money-bags, replaced the proper back, and then restored theclock to its original position. You see, he was careful to make thespace between the false and the real backs so narrow that there wasvery little possibility of the hiding-place being discovered by chanceor suspicion. Even the man who has forestalled us with the solutionof the cryptogram was unable to discover the treasure until he hadrecourse to the clumsy method of smashing up the clock. This is whathe used to do it." Crewe pointed to an axe lying near. "With that hesmashed the case, found the treasure, and carried off what he could. Hewould be able to carry four of these bags at a time--two in each hand.He has left these four for another trip. How many trips he has alreadymade I do not know, but probably more than one."
"He may be back again any moment," said Marsland, lowering his voice toa whisper. "Hadn't we better hide?"
"He won't be back just yet," said Crewe confidently.
"What makes you so certain of that?"
"He was here when we saw the flash of light. That is less than half anhour ago. To walk from here with four of these bags to the cliff, downthe path in the dark to the boat he has waiting for him would take morethan half an hour."
"But what makes you think he has a boat? Why do you feel sure he hascome by sea?"
"Because that is the better way to come if he wanted to escapeobservation. If he came by road he would have brought a vehicle andwould have taken the whole of the treasure away in a few minutes. Butin a vehicle he might be met along the road by some one who knew him."
"Have you any idea who it is?" asked Marsland.
"Some one who has solved the cryptogram or got it solved for him,"said Crewe. "By making a tour of the second-hand bookshops in Londonhe probably got in touch with some one who has made a study ofcryptograms, and in that way got it solved. There are some strangehuman types in these big second-hand bookshops in London--strange oldmen full of unexpected information in all sorts of subjects."
"But how did he get a copy of the cryptogram? Could he have gotpossession of the copy I found on the stairs?"
"I think so."
"How?"
"Miss Maynard gave it to him."
"Miss Maynard!" echoed the young man. "How could she have got it? Sheleft the house with me and did not come back. In fact, she was verymuch opposed to coming back when I suggested that we should do so inorder to get it."
"If she had it in her possession at the house her opposition to yourproposal to go back for it is quite reasonable. I think you said thatafter you found the dead body upstairs she rushed downstairs and waitedoutside for you. She had ample time to go into the room and take thecryptogram from the table where you placed it. Doubtless her mainthought was that its presence might implicate Brett in some way."
"Then it is Brett who has taken this money and is carrying it down thecliff to the boat?" said Marsland excitedly.
/> "Yes. Probably Miss Maynard is down at the boat keeping guard over thebags as he brings them."
"And you think he will come back here for the rest?" asked Marsland.
Crewe noticed the eagerness in the young man's voice: it seemed as ifMarsland was excited by the thought of meeting Brett.
"He is not likely to leave L4,000 behind unless he knows the place isbeing watched."
"Let us go towards the cliffs and meet him," declared Marslandimpatiently. "To think that I am to meet him face to face, and here ofall places."
"We might miss him in the dark, and he might get clean away."
"Where shall we hide?" asked the young man, again sinking his voice toa whisper. "He may reach here any moment now."
"He came in by the front door. The lock has not been injured, soapparently he has a key. You hide in the room on the left--justinside, close to the door. I will hide in the cupboard underneath thestaircase. When he reaches the clock he cannot escape without passingus. Give him time to get the money, and as soon as he has the bags inhis hands ready to start off, we will both spring out at him."
Crewe watched Marsland enter the sitting-room on the left and thenopened the door of the cupboard beneath the staircase and croucheddown. The cupboard opened into the hall, and through the crack of thedoor Crewe was able to see into the room where the shattered clock was.The door of the room where Marsland was hidden also commanded a viewof the interior of the room in which the clock stood. The stillnesswas so complete that Crewe could hear the watch in his pocket tickingoff the ebbing moments. Once the distant yelp of a sheep-dog reachedhim, then there was another long period of stillness. Twice his keenear caught a faint creaking in the old house, but he knew they were butthe mysterious night noises which are so common in all old houses: thequerulous creakings and complaints of beams and joists which have seenmany human generations come and go.
But, as the time dragged on without a sound to indicate that the thiefwas returning, Crewe found to his vexation that he had increasingdifficulty in keeping his senses alert in that dark and muffledsilence. The close and confined atmosphere of the cupboard, the lackof air, his cramped position, compelled an unconquerable drowsiness.
Then he heard a sound which drove away his drowsiness--the sound of akey in a lock. He heard the door creak as it was pushed back and thencame steps advancing along the hall, stumbling along noisily, as thoughtheir owner thought that the need for precautions ceased when the frontdoor was passed: that once inside the house he was safe, and need notfear interruption.
There was a scrape and a splutter, and a flickering flame in the hall;the thief had struck a match. Through the crack of the cupboard doorCrewe watched the tiny blue flame grow larger, turn yellow, and burnsteadily, and he could see the dim outline of a man's back and a handshielding the match showing transparent through the flame. The thiefhad struck his match with his face to the doorway. The outline of hisother hand approached, and the light grew brighter--the intruder hadlit a piece of candle. As it burnt up the man turned towards the clock,and Crewe saw the face of Brett for the first time. His impression wasof a pair of hunted nervous eyes roving restlessly in a livid waxenmask, a tense sucked-in mouth.
He saw no more. Apparently Marsland had been too excited to wait untilthe thief had the bags in his hands, for Brett started as though heheard a movement, and quickly extinguished his candle. There was amoment of intense silence, and then Crewe heard Marsland's voice raisedin a strange high-pitched scream that made it seem unfamiliar.
"Powell, you traitor and murderer! I am Marsland--Captain Marsland. Iwill kill you without sending you to trial."
Crewe had thrown open the door of the cupboard at the first soundof the voice, but before he could get on to his feet there was thedeafening sound of a revolver shot, followed by the rush of feet andthe fall of a body.
The bullet had missed the thief, and Marsland, advancing on him afterfiring, had been knocked over by Brett's rush for the door. BeforeCrewe could reach him across Marsland's prostrate form Brett had thrownopen the door and was outside the house.
Crewe dashed for the door in pursuit. He caught a glimpse of a fleeingfigure, bent nearly double to shield himself from another shot, runningdown the gravel path at amazing speed. Then the figure was swallowed upin the night.
Crewe followed, without waiting to find out how Marsland had fared. Hefailed to catch another glimpse of Brett, but had no doubt he wouldmake for the path down the cliff, about a quarter of a mile away,Crewe, who had been a long-distance runner at school, and was inexcellent training, knew that he would last the distance better thanBrett.
He caught sight of Brett again before half the distance between thedowns and the cliffs had been covered--a fantastic flying figurebobbing into view against the sky-line for an instant as he ran acrossthe crest of a little hill, and as suddenly disappeared again. But thatbrief glimpse of the fugitive revealed to Crewe that Brett had mistakenhis course: he was running too much to the right.
Crewe ran on steadily in a straight line for the path. When Brettdiscovered that he had run too wide he would have to curve back, takingalmost a semicircular course before he reached the beginning of thepath. Crewe's course was the shorter--the cord to Brett's bow, andwould bring him to the path before Brett could possibly reach it. Thedetective slackened pace slightly, and cast a glance over his shoulderto see if Marsland was following him; but he could not see him.
Crewe reached the hidden path, and waited, listening, by the busheswhich concealed the entrance. Soon his quick ear caught the pad offootsteps, and as they drew nearer they were accompanied by the quickbreathing of a man running hard. Then the form of Brett loomed up,running straight for the path.
Crewe sprang at him as he came close, but the runner saw his danger intime to fling himself sideways. He was on his feet again in an instant,and made away along the edge of the cliff, bounding along with greatjumps among the rocks from point to point and rock to rock. Crewe drewso close that he could hear Brett's panting breath as he ran, but eachtime Brett with a desperate spurt put a few more yards between themagain. Once he staggered and seemed about to fall, but he sprang upagain and ran with the speed of a hare.
They had reached the rocky headland which jutted into the sea a hundredyards or more by the dangerous turn of the cliff road. Crewe slackenedhis pace to call out a warning to the man he was pursuing.
"Look out or you will fall over the cliff!" he cried.
Brett paused, turned irresolutely, and then began slowly to retracehis steps. But as he did so a figure appeared suddenly out of the gloomand dashed past Crewe towards him.
"You dog, I have you!" screamed Marsland. "You cannot get away from meagain."
"Look out, Marsland!" cried Crewe, springing after him. "You will bothgo over."
Marsland ran on without heeding, cursing savagely at the hunted man.Brett had fled away again at the sound of his voice, and Crewe couldhear his gasping breath as he stumbled over the slippery rocks. Thetwo figures appeared clearly against the sky-line for a moment as theyraced towards the end of the headland. Then the foremost disappearedover the cliff with a scream. Brett, endeavouring to double in histracks at the edge of the headland, had slipped and gone over.
Marsland was standing on the edge of the cliff, peering down into thesea mist which veiled the water below, when Crewe reached his side.Crewe drew him back.
"Come away if you don't want to follow him," he said. "We shall have toget the police out to look for his body, but perhaps the sea will carryit away."
The Mystery of the Downs Page 24