The Mystery of Lincoln's Inn Part 51

"Are you to see Bennet again soon?"

"I must, and he is pretty sure to ask why father has not come instead of me. He asked me that last time, and he was very rude when I told him father was too ill to go to York. I'll have to tell him the truth sooner or later. What do you think?"

"I advise telling him the truth," said Gilbert. "Now, Ernie, there's one thing I wish to ask you, and then I will go on with my packing. I did not like to ask mother. Has she or Helen or any one heard how Miss Thornton is?"

"All that I can tell you," replied Ernest, "is, I was told she had been to see Bennet in prison. Neither mother nor Helen has heard from or of her, I feel quite sure."

Gilbert sighed heavily, but said nothing.

Next day he was on board the _St. Louis_, and arrived, a week later, at New York. On the pier he was met by the detective's correspondent, a slim, sharp-faced man, called Matthews, who introduced himself.

"I have news for you, Mr. Eversleigh," said Matthews, after they had exchanged a few words.

"Good news, I hope?" asked Gilbert.

"I reckon it is pretty good," was the reply. "James Russell, the man you want, is living in St. Paul with his wife and child. His house is in a poor quarter of the city, and he don't seem well off. He goes about quite openly, too, as if he had nothing to fear--I mean he don't try and hide himself. I have an agent in St. Paul, and what I've told you is what he wired me; you can depend on it."

"This is indeed good news," said Gilbert, eagerly. "Now I must go on to St. Paul. How long will it take me to get there?"

"Two days, more or less. You travel to Chicago first, and then on to St.

Paul. So you will go straight there? Have you any acquaintances or friends in St. Paul?"

"I know no one there."

"Would you like a letter to my agent? He's as bright as a new dollar, and as sharp as a needle."

"Much obliged to you; by all means give me a note to him. And now tell me about the trains, please; I am quite a stranger here."

"D'you wish to leave to-day?"

"I hate to think of losing a minute needlessly," said Gilbert, earnestly. "The matter is of the greatest importance."

"So I guessed," observed Matthews. "I'll do the best I can for you."

And he did. He made everything easy for Gilbert, so that the latter had no difficulty in reaching St. Paul well within two days after his arrival in New York.

As he had calculated, he was in St. Paul ten days after leaving London.

Putting up at the Merchant's Hotel, he at once tried to get into communication with Hankey, Matthew's agent, on the telephone, but was disappointed. From a directory he ascertained where Hankey's office was, and learning from the hotel clerk that it was only a few blocks away, and not difficult to find, he set out for it. But he did not reach it without having to ask his way several times from people he met in the streets.

Stopping at the junction of two streets, and uncertain whether to go straight ahead or turn off, Gilbert consulted a policeman standing at the corner. As he spoke, the sound of his voice, or rather his accent, attracted the attention of a man who was pa.s.sing by. Gilbert had his back to this pedestrian, so that he did not see him.

The pedestrian paused to make certain that he did recognize Gilbert's voice; besides, he recognized Gilbert's figure. Then he walked on slowly, and watched Gilbert's movements from a distance, taking care to keep himself un.o.bserved.

The pedestrian was Cooper Silwood, _alias_ James Russell, but it was in the latter character he now appeared.

"What is he doing here?" Silwood asked himself. "Is it a mere accident, or has he discovered something? I must follow him and see where he goes--that may afford an indication of his business here."

And as he shadowed Gilbert from a safe distance, and pondered the reason for his being in St. Paul, his keen intelligence told him more and more insistently that Gilbert's visit to St. Paul was concerned with him.

Any doubt he had was dissipated when he saw Gilbert enter the building in which were situated the offices of Hankey's Private Detective Agency.

"How much does he know?" wondered Silwood. "How does he know it? What mistake have I made? what loophole left? I believed myself absolutely safe; but now.... Well, St. Paul is no place any longer for me. I must leave it at once, and go on to Winnipeg, and hide myself somewhere on the prairies of the North-West."

After a very short time, Gilbert reappeared and retraced his steps to the Merchant's Hotel, whither Silwood, still at a safe distance, followed him.

"This is where he is stopping," thought Silwood, as he observed Gilbert pa.s.s into the hotel.

Then Silwood walked rapidly away.

Gilbert had met with a second disappointment. On calling at Hankey's Agency, he had been told Hankey himself had that morning been summoned on urgent business to Minneapolis, and would not return till the evening, when he would make a point of coming round to the Merchant's.

There was therefore nothing for it but to wait.

Late in the evening Hankey came.

"I am sorry I am so late, but I could not help it!" he exclaimed. "I have come straight to you from Minneapolis, without going to my office first, as I knew you must be anxious to see me. Sorry I could not come sooner, but it was an important case--defaulting bank president and cas.h.i.+er."

Gilbert nodded that he quite understood.

"About James Russell," continued Hankey. "I can put my hand on him at any time; he is kept under constant observation, though he has no idea of it. Yet it hardly seems necessary, for he walks about quite openly in the streets, sometimes alone, sometimes with his wife. They have a lame, crippled child, which they have taken out once or twice."

"Is James Russell anything like this?" asked Gilbert, handing Hankey a photograph of Silwood.

"About the same height, perhaps, but otherwise quite different."

"Yet it is the same man," said Gilbert.

"If so--and I don't doubt your word--what a splendid disguise he has a.s.sumed! Case of absconding?" asked Hankey. "Do you wish him arrested?"

"By-and-by; but first I must try to get him to disgorge. He has absconded with a large sum of money."

"Much?"

"Between three and four hundred thousand pounds."

"Nearly two million dollars!" exclaimed Hankey. "Mr. James Russell must be a pretty smart man. Two million! I confess to a certain admiration for a man who can rake in as big a pot as that. Well, I should say it would be very difficult to make a man of that calibre disgorge. How do you intend doing it?"

"I thought you might be able to suggest some plan."

"Well, I reckon that is possible. First thing is to get hold of Russell--and it'll have to be a tight hold, you bet."

"Of course. I admit I don't see what to do; but it seems to me I remember reading of a case the Pinkertons had, in which they had the criminal seized--it was also a case of embezzlement--and kept in a room till he disgorged. They did not put him into prison; they kept him a prisoner in a room in a house of their own."

"I guess something of the kind has happened," remarked Hankey; "but it sounds rather like a bit out of a dime novel. You suggest I should attempt the same game with James Russell, is that it?"

"It is just an idea; I don't say you should act upon it. Is there any plan in your mind?"

"Not at the moment. I'll sleep on it, and come round in the morning."

"Very well. But of course you understand I wish the business concluded as speedily as possible."