An Old Meerschaum Part 5

Barndale looked at him again inquiringly, opened the door, walked in, and allowed the stranger to follow. The man entered the room and stood before Barndale on the hearthrug. He had one hand in the breast of his coat; and somehow, as Barndale looked at him, he bethought him of the Greek who had stood with his hand at his breast in the Concordia Garden glaring at Leland.

'I hope you'll take it quietly,' said the clean-shaven man, 'but it's got to be done, and will be done whether you take it quietly or not. I'm an officer, and it's my duty to arrest you.'

There pa.s.sed rapidly through Barndale's mind the remembrance of a disputed wine-bill, and the service of some legal doc.u.ment which he had thrown into the fire without reading.

He connected the clean-shaven stranger with these things, and was tickled at the idea of being arrested for some such trifle as a hundred pounds. He was so far tickled that he laughed outright.

'Come,' said Barndale, still smiling, 'this is absurd. I'll give you a cheque at once. Are you empowered to give a receipt?'

The clean-shaven stranger regarded him with a cool, observant, wary eye.

'It's my duty to arrest you,' he said again quietly, 'and I hope you'll come quietly and make no fuss about it.'

'My good man,' said Barndale, 'you can't arrest me if I pay the money.'

'Come, come, come, sir,' said the official, with calm superiority in his tone; 'that's all very well and very pretty, but it's Mr. Leland's affair that I want you for, sir.'

'Mr. Leland's affair?' said Barndale.

'That little attempted murder the night before last, that's all. Now, take it quiet; don't let's have any nonsense, you know.'

The clean-shaven stranger's lips pressed close together with a resolute look, and his hand came a little way out of the breast of his coat.

'Will you have the goodness to tell me what you mean?' asked Barndale, bewildered, and a little angry to find himself so.

'Well, if you _won't_ know anything about it, Mr. James Leland was found yesterday in a house-boat at Thames Ditton, with a pistol bullet into him, and he ain't expected to recover, and that's my business along with you, and I'll trouble you to come quiet.'

The tension on the official nerves made hash of the official's English.

Barndale smote the mantel-piece with his clenched hand.

'Great G.o.d!' he cried. 'The Greek! Where is Mr. Leland?' he asked the official eagerly.

'In bed at the "Swan," abeing doctored. That's where _he_ is,' replied the official curtly. 'Now, come along, and don't let's have no more palaver.'

Barndale discerned the nature of the situation, and remained master of himself.

'I will come with you,' he said with grave self-possession. 'I am somehow suspected of having a hand in the attempted murder of my friend.

Now, you shall arrest me since you must, but you shall not tie the hands of justice by preventing me from tracing the criminal. The man who has committed this crime is Demetri Agryopoulo, a Greek, attached to the Persian Emba.s.sy at Constantinople. You look like a shrewd and wary man,'

Barndale took out his cheque-book and wrote a cheque for one hundred pounds. 'When you have done with me, cash that cheque and spend every penny of it, if need be, in pursuit of that man. When it is gone come to me for more. When you have caught him, come to me for five hundred pounds. Wait a moment.'

He sat down and wrote in a great, broad hand: 'I promise to pay to Bearer the sum of Five Hundred Pounds (500L.) on the arrest of Demetri Agryopoulo, attache to the Persian Emba.s.sy at Constantinople__W. Holmes Barn-dale.' He appended date and place, and handed it to the officer.

'Very good, sir,' said he, waving the papers to and fro in the air to dry the ink, and keeping all the while a wary eye on Barndale. 'I know that my opinion goes for nothing, but if I was a grand jury I should throw out the bill, most likely. We'll make it as quiet as we _can_, sir; but there's two of my men outside, and if there should be any need for force it'll have to be used, that's all.'

'I shall go with you quietly,' said Barndale. 'I have two things to impress upon you. Let no apparent evidence in any other direction throw you off the scent on which I have set you. Next: send a smart man to Thames Ditton and let him collect evidence of all the grounds on which I am suspected. Now I am ready.'

Thus torn with grief for his friend, and sorrow for his lover, but moved to no upbraiding of Fate for the cruel trick she had played him, this British gentleman surrendered himself to the emissary of Public Gossip and went away with him.

The officer, having ideas of his own, got into a cab with Barndale and drove straight to Scotland Yard. On the way Barndale set out the evidence in favour of his own theory of the crime and its motive.

Inspector Webb's experience of criminals was large; but he had never known a criminal conduct himself after Barn-dale's fas.h.i.+on, and was convinced of his innocence, and hotly eager to be in pursuit of the Greek. When the cab drew up in the Yard a second cab drew up behind it, and from it emerged two clean-shaven, quiet-looking men in inconspicuous dresses, whom Barndale had seen in King's Bench Walk as he had gone that afternoon to his chambers. Scarcely had they alighted when a third cab came up, and from it dashed a mahogany-coloured young man with grey hair, and a.s.sisted a lady to alight. Catching sight of Barndale, the lady ran forward and took him by the arm.

'Oh, Will,' she said, 'you have heard this dreadful news?'

'My poor child!' he answered.

'This,' said Lilian, pointing out her companion, 'is Dr. Wattiss, who saved James's life.'

'Hundred and Ninety-first Foot,' said the medical man. 'I've had considerable experience in gunshot wounds, and I don't think Mr.

Leland's case at all desperate, if that's any comfort to anybody,' There the doctor smiled. 'You are Mr. Barndale, I presume. Miss Leland has evidence of the name and even the whereabouts of the scoundrel who inflicted the wound, and we are here to hunt him up.'

'May I ask who's the suspected party?' asked Inspector Webb with his eye on the doctor.

'Demetri Agryopoulo,' said Lilian, 'a Greek----'

'Attached to the Persian Emba.s.sy at Constantinople.' said Inspector Webb. 'All right. Come with me, ma'am. This way, gentlemen.' And the inspector marshalled them all upstairs. There he gave a whispered order to an officer who lounged to the door, and placed his back against it, and there picked his teeth, insouciant. The inspector disappeared. In two minutes he was back again.

'This way, ma'am. This way, gentlemen,' And he ushered all three before him up a set of stone stairs, down a set of stone stairs, and into a carpeted apartment, where sat a gentleman of military aspect, behind a business-looking table overspread with papers.

'You have a statement to make to me, I believe,' he said to Lilian with grave politeness.

Lilian told her story without faltering and without superfluous words.

When she mentioned the pipe Dr. Wattiss drew a packet from his pocket and unwound it carefully, and laid the precious meerschaum on the table.

'What is this statement of a nightly quarrel between the two residents in the house-boat, Webb?' Thus spoke the superior officer behind the business table.

'Man named Hodges, sir,' responded the inspector, 'states that he overheard violent rows after dusk.'

In spite of all his grief and anxiety Barn-dale laughed, and was about to speak in explanation when Lilian rose and laid a letter on the table.

'Will you kindly read that, sir, and then ask Mr. Barndale to explain?'

she said simply.

The military-looking official took the letter and read it through. It ran thus:--

'On the Roaring Deep,

'Thames Ditton.

'Dear Lil,--

'Billy has struck ile. He's at work on an amazing comedy with which he intends to fire the Thames next first of April. He and I are both going to appear in it at Barndale in the Christmas week. Meantime we rehea.r.s.e a terrific combat nightly.

'While words of learned length and thundering sound Amaze the wondering rustics gathered round.

'A genial idiot, Hodges yclept, has persuaded the whole village that a murder is on the carpet, and that Billy and I are at daggers drawn. Don't tell him this in any of your letters. It's a great tribute to our acting that even Hodges takes us to be in earnest. I can't call to mind any stage row I ever listened to that I shouldn't have spotted the hollowness of in a brace of shakes. At this minute Author summons Actor to Rehearsal. I close up. This Scrawl to tell you I haven't forgotten you. Would have written more, but authority's voice is urgent.

'Your affectionate brother,