The Stretton Street Affair Part 40

Nevertheless, it was a source of satisfaction that at last Despujol had, by my watchfulness, been run to earth.

Suddenly the telephone at Monsieur Coulagne's elbow rang, and after listening, he exclaimed:

"The men are already posted round the hotel. So all we have to do is to await his return."

Hence I went forth with Rivero and the Commissary. Led by the latter, we approached the Place de l'Esplanade through a labyrinth of narrow back streets until, on gaining the hotel, we saw idling in the vicinity a number of men who were apparently quite disinterested.

We entered the hotel boldly, and drawing back to the end of the lounge, after a whispered word with the concierge, we waited.

For a full hour we remained there in eager impatience, until suddenly a figure whom I recognized as Doctor Moroni showed in the doorway.

He was alone!

He ascended to his room, where he remained for about ten minutes.

Then, descending, he went to the bureau and inquired for the bill of his friend and himself, announcing his intention of departing for Paris by the train which left in half an hour!

Rivero, who had been standing near him unrecognized, crossed quickly to where with the Commissary I sat well back from observation, and gasped:

"They've gone! He is also leaving! Evidently they suspected they were under observation!"

"Ah! Despujol is a very wary bird," replied Monsieur Coulagne, rising and walking out into the Place, where he whispered some hurried words to a stout, well-dressed man who was sauntering by, and who was his chief inspector.

In a few moments more than half the lurking police agents had disappeared to make inquiries at the railway station and in various quarters, and when he rejoined us--Moroni having returned upstairs--he said:

"Despujol cannot yet have gone very far. I have given orders for all railway stations within two hundred kilometres to be warned. Let us return to my bureau and await reports."

"And what about Moroni?" I asked.

"He will be followed. I have already seen to that," was the reply.

Back at the Prefecture Monsieur Coulagne was soon speaking rapidly over the telephone. Then we waited for news of the fugitive. None came until about two hours afterwards the result of inquiries was told to us by an inspector.

It seemed that on the previous day a large open car, driven by a chauffeur, put into Carli's Garage, a big establishment in the Boulevard des Arenes. The chauffeur asked for a receipt for the car, saying that he had to go by train to Ma.r.s.eilles, and that his master would probably call for the car on the following day, and produce the receipt. He asked that it should be filled up with petrol in readiness for his master. About two hours before the police made inquiry three gentlemen entered the garage, the descriptions of whom tallied with those of De Gex, Despujol and Moroni. De Gex produced the receipt for the car. He paid for the petrol, and he and Despujol drove away bidding farewell to Moroni! Despujol drove the car.

"Ah!" exclaimed Rivero. "Despujol would not risk the train. He always arranges a secret means of escape. In this case he prepared it on the day before. Without a doubt he knew that watch was being kept."

"Or was it that De Gex knew that I was here?" I suggested.

"Well, in any case," remarked the Commissary of Police, "the pair have got clear away, and though we will do our best, it will no doubt be extremely difficult to rediscover them. They will change the number-plates on the car, and perhaps repaint it! Who knows? Despujol is one of the most desperate characters in all Europe!"

"And Oswald De Gex is equally dangerous!" I declared, for I was still no nearer the truth.

CHAPTER THE TWENTY-SECOND

GABRIELLE AT HOME

I had been back in London a little over a week when I read in the paper one morning a paragraph which possessed for me a peculiar interest. It ran as follows:

"The notorious Spanish bandit Rodriquez Despujol, who has for several years terrorized Murcia and Andalusia and has committed several murders, is dead. The police have been searching for him everywhere, but so elusive was he that he always evaded them. The celebrated Spanish detective Senor Rivero learnt a short time ago that the wanted man had been seen at Nimes, where he cleverly contrived to escape by car.

"Certain clues came into the hands of the police, and by these Senor Rivero was able to trace the fugitive to Denia, not far from Valencia. He was hiding in a small cottage in an orange-grove just outside the town. The place was surrounded by police, but Despujol, discovering this, opened fire upon them from one of the windows and also threw a hand grenade among them, with result that two carabineers were killed and four others injured, among the latter being Senor Rivero himself. A desperate fight ensued, but in the end the bandit received a bullet in the head which proved fatal.

"A large quant.i.ty of stolen property of all sorts has been discovered in rooms which the criminal occupied in Montauban, in France. Despujol's latest exploit was an attempt to administer in secret a very deadly poison to an Englishman who was visiting Madrid. It was that attempted crime which aroused Senor Rivero's activities which have had the effect of ridding Spain of one of its most notorious a.s.sa.s.sins."

I read the report twice. So the defiant Despujol was dead, and poor Rivero had sustained injuries! Nothing was said of the powerful financier's friends.h.i.+p with the bandit.

When I showed it to Hambledon, he remarked:

"At least you've been the means not only of putting an end to Despujol's ign.o.ble career, but also of restoring a quant.i.ty of very valuable property to its owners."

"True, but it brings us no nearer a solution of the affair at Stretton Street," was my reply.

Gabrielle's mother had returned to London, and that evening I called upon her by appointment. I found her a grey-haired refined woman with a pale anxious face and deep-set eyes.

When I mentioned Gabrielle, who was in the adjoining room, she sighed and exclaimed:

"Ah! Mr. Garfield. It is a great trial to me. Poor child! I cannot think what happened to her. n.o.body can tell, she least of all. Doctor Moroni has been very good, for he is greatly interested in her case.

They have told me that you called some time ago and evinced an interest in her."

"Yes, Mrs. Tennison," I said. "I feel a very deep interest in your daughter because--well, to tell you the truth, I, too, after a strange adventure here in London one night completely lost my sense of ident.i.ty, and when I came to a knowledge of things about me I was in a hospital in France, having been found unconscious at the roadside many days after my adventure in London."

"How very curious!" Mrs. Tennison remarked, instantly interested.

"Gabrielle was found at the roadside. Do you think, then, that there is any connexion between your case and hers?"

"Yes, Mrs. Tennison," I replied promptly. "It is for that reason I am in active search of the truth--in the interests of your daughter, as well as of those of my own."

"What do you suspect, Mr. Garfield?" asked Gabrielle's mother, as we sat in that cosily-furnished little room where on the table in the centre stood an old punch-bowl filled with sweet-smelling La France roses.

"I suspect many things. In some, my suspicions have proved correct. In others, I am still entirely in the dark. One important point, however, I have established, namely, the means by which this curious, mysterious effect has been produced upon the minds of both your daughter and myself. When one knows the disease then it is not difficult to search for the cure. I know how the effect was produced, and further, I know the name of the medical man who has effected cures in similar cases."

"You do?" she exclaimed eagerly. "Well, Gabrielle has seen a dozen specialists, all of whom have been puzzled."

"Professor Gourbeil, of Lyons, has been able to gain complete cures in two cases. Orosin, a newly discovered poison, is the drug that was used, and the Professor has a wider knowledge of the effect of that highly dangerous substance than any person living. You should arrange to take your daughter to him."

The pale-faced widow shook her head, and in a mournful tone, replied:

"Ah! I am afraid it would be useless. Doctor Moroni took her to several specialists, but they all failed to restore her brain to its normal activity."

"Professor Gourbeil is the only man who has ever been able to completely cure a person to whom orosin has been administered--and that has been in two cases only."

"So the chance is very remote, even if she saw him," exclaimed the widow despairingly.

"I think, Mrs. Tennison, that Gabrielle should see him in any case," I said.

"I agree. The poor girl's condition is most pitiable. At times she seems absolutely normal, and talks of things about her in quite a reasonable manner. But she never seems able to concentrate her thoughts. They always wander swiftly from one subject to another. I have noticed, too, that her vision is affected. Sometimes she will declare that a vivid red is blue. When we look into shop windows together she will refer to a yellow dress as mauve, a pink as white.