Hushed Up! A Mystery of London Part 17

Suddenly, as I stood there on the crowded pavement, I became conscious that I was attracting attention. I recollected my dusty clothes and dirty, dishevelled face. I must have presented a strange, dissipated, out-all-night appearance. And further, I had lost a thousand pounds.

Up and down before the long range of shop-windows I walked, patiently awaiting her reappearance. I was anxious to know the truth concerning the previous night's happenings--a truth which I intended she should not conceal from me.

I glanced at my watch. It was already past eleven o'clock. Morning shopping in Regent Street had now commenced in real earnest. The thoroughfare was lined with carriages, for was it not the height of the London season?

In and out of the big drapery establishment pa.s.sed crowds of well-dressed women, most of them with pet dogs, and others with male friends led like lambs to the slaughter. The spectacle of a man in silk hat out shopping with a lady friend is always a pitiable one. His very look craves the sympathy of the onlooker, especially if he be laden with soft-paper parcels.

My brain was awhirl. My only thought was of Sylvia and of her strange connection with these undesirable persons who had so ingeniously stolen my money, and who had baited such a fatal trap.

Anxious as I was to get to a telephone and ring up Jack, yet I could not leave my post--I had promised to await her.

Nearly an hour went by; I entered the shop and searched its labyrinth of "departments." But I could not distinguish her anywhere. Upstairs and downstairs I went, inquiring here and there, but n.o.body seemed to have seen the fair young lady in black; the great emporium seemed to have swallowed her up.

It was now noon. Even though she might have been through a dress-fitting ordeal, an hour was certainly ample time. Therefore I began to fear that she had missed me. There were several other exits higher up the street, and also one which I discovered in a side street.

I returned to her taxi, for I had already paid off my man. The driver had not seen his "fare."

"I was hailed by the lady close to Chapel Street," he said, "and I drove 'er to Oxford Street, not far from Tottenham Court Road. We stood at the kerb for about ten minutes. Then she ordered me to drive with all speed over 'ere."

"Did you see her speak with any gentleman?"

"She was with a dark, youngish gentleman when they hailed me. She got in and left 'im in Chapel Street. I heard 'im say as we went off that he'd see 'er again soon."

"That's all you know of her?"

"Yes, sir. I've never seen 'er before," replied the driver. Then he added with a smile, "Your man's been tellin' me as how you thought I had a bank-thief in my cab!"

"Yes, but I was mistaken," I said. "I must have made a mistake in the cab."

"That's very easy, sir. We're so much alike--us red 'uns."

Sylvia's non-appearance much puzzled me. What could it mean? For another half-hour--an anxious, impatient, breathless half-hour--I waited, but she did not return.

Had she, too, cleverly escaped by entering the shop, and pa.s.sing out by another entrance?

Another careful tour of the establishment revealed the fact that she certainly was not there.

And so, after a wait of nearly two hours, I was compelled to accept the hard and very remarkable fact that she had purposely evaded me, and escaped!

Then she was in league with the men who had stolen my thousand pounds!

And yet had not that selfsame man declared that she, having betrayed him, was to meet the same terrible fate as that prepared for me?

For a final five minutes I waited; then annoyed, disappointed and dismayed, entered the taxi, and drove to Wilton Street.

On entering with my latch-key, Browning came forward with a puzzled expression, surprised, no doubt, at my dishevelled appearance.

"I've been very anxious about you, Mr. Owen," exclaimed the old man. I was always Mr. Owen to him, just as I had been when a lad. "When I went to your room this morning I found your bed empty. I wondered where you had gone."

"I've had a strange adventure, Browning," I laughed, rather forcedly I fear. "Has Mr. Marlowe rung me up?"

"No, sir. But somebody else rang up about an hour ago, and asked whether you were in."

"Who was it?"

"I couldn't quite catch the name, sir. It sounded like Shuffle--something."

"Shuttleworth!" I cried. "Did he leave any message?"

"No, sir. He merely asked if you were in--that's all."

As Sylvia was in London, perhaps Shuttleworth was in town also, I reflected. Yet she had cleverly made her escape--in order to avoid being questioned. Her secret was a guilty one!

I called up Jack, who answered cheerily as usual.

"You didn't ring me up about one o'clock this morning, did you?" I inquired.

"No. Why?" he asked.

"Oh--well, nothing," I said. "I thought perhaps it might have been you--that's all. What time shall you be in at White's?"

"About four. Will you be there?"

"Yes."

"Right-ho! Good-bye, old man," and he rang off.

I ascended to my room, changed my clothes, and made myself respectable. But during the time I was dressing I reflected whether I should go to Scotland Yard and relate my strange experience. Such clever fiends as Reckitt and Forbes deserved punishment. What fearful crimes had been committed in that weird, neglected house I dreaded to think. My only hesitation, however, was caused by the thought that perhaps Sylvia might be implicated. I felt somehow impelled to try and solve the problem for myself. I had lost a thousand pounds. Yet had I not fallen into that trap in utter disregard of Sylvia's warning?

Therefore, I resolved to keep my own counsel for the present, and to make a few inquiries in order to satisfy my curiosity. So, putting on a different suit, a different collar, and a soft felt hat which I never wore, in a perhaps feeble attempt to transform myself from my usual appearance, I went forth again.

My first visit was to the bank, where I saw the manager and explained that the cheque had been stolen from my pocket, though I did not expose the real facts. Then, after he had condoled with me upon my loss, and offered to send the description of the thief to the police at once, I re-entered the taxi, and drove back to Porchester Terrace, alighting a short distance from Althorp House.

CHAPTER TEN

CONTAINS A FURTHER SURPRISE

It was nearly one o'clock, and the sun was high, as I walked beneath the dingy brick walls which separate each short garden from the pavement. In some gardens were stunted trees, blackened by the London smoke, while the houses were mostly large and comfortable, for it is still considered a "genteel," if somewhat decayed neighbourhood.

Before that house of horror I paused for a moment. The dingy blinds of yellow holland were drawn at each of the soot-grimed windows, blackened by age and dirt. The garden was weedy and neglected, for the gra.s.s grew high on the patch of lawn, and the dead leaves of the tulips and daffodils of spring had not been removed.

The whole place presented a sadly neglected, sorry appearance--a state of uncared-for disorder which, in the darkness of night, I had, of course, not noticed.

As I looked within the garden I saw lying behind the wall an old weather-beaten notice-board which bore the words "To be let, Furnished," and giving the name of a well-known firm of estate agents in Pall Mall.