Cleek of Scotland Yard Part 3

The loneliness of the upper deck offered its attractions to the Mauravanian and to Margot, and in the emptiness of it they met again--within earshot of the lifeboat where Narkom and the boy lay hidden--for one brief word before they went ash.o.r.e.

"So, you have read: you understand how useless it was?" the Mauravanian said, joining her again at the deckhouse, where she stood with the crumpled newspaper in her hand. "His Majesty's purse cannot be lightened of all that promised sum for any such bungle as this. Speak quickly; where may we go to talk in safety? I cannot risk it here--I will not risk it in the train. Must we wait until we reach Paris, mademoiselle? Or have you a lair of your own here?"

"I have 'lairs,' as you term them, in half the cities of France, Monsieur le Comte," she answered with a vicious little note of resentment in her voice. "And I do not work for nothing--no, not I! I paid for my adherence to his Majesty's Prime Minister and I intend to be paid for my services to his Majesty's self, even though I have this once failed. It must be settled, that question, at once and for all--now--to-night."

"I guessed it would be like that," he answered, with a jerk of his shoulders. "Where shall it be, then? Speak quickly. They are making the landing and I must not be seen talking with you after we go ash.o.r.e. Where, then?"

"At the Inn of the Seven Sinners--on the Quai d'Lorme--a gunshot distant. Any cocher will take you there."

"Is it safe?"

"All my 'lairs' are safe, monsieur. It overhangs the water. And if strangers come, there is a trap with a bolt on the under side. One way: to the town and the sewers and forty other inns. The other: to a motor boat, always in readiness for instant use. You could choose for yourself should occasion come. You will not find the place shut--my 'lairs' never are. A pa.s.sword? No, there is none--for any but the Brotherhood. Nor will you need one. You remember old Marise of the 'Twisted Arm' in Paris? Well, she serves at the Seven Sinners now. I have promoted Madame Serpice to the 'Twisted Arm'.

She will know you, will Marise. Say to her I am coming shortly. She and her mates will raise the roof with joy, and--la! la! The gangway is out. They are calling all ash.o.r.e. Look for me and my lads close on your heels when you arrive. Au revoir."

"Au revoir," he repeated, and slipping by went below and made his way ash.o.r.e.

She waited that he might get well on his way--that none might by any possibility a.s.sociate them--then turning, went down after him and out to the pier, where her crew were already forgathering; and when or how she pa.s.sed the word to them that it was not Paris to-night but the Inn of the Seven Sinners, neither Narkom nor Dollops could decide, close as they came on after her, for she seemed to speak to no one.

"No Inn of the Seven Sinners for you to-night, my lady, if my friend M. Ducroix has attended to that wireless message properly," muttered Narkom as he followed her. "Look sharp, Dollops, and if you see a Sergeant de Ville let me know. They've no luggage, that lot, and, besides, they are natives, so they will pa.s.s the customs in a jiffy. Hullo! there goes that pedler chap--and without his fez or his draperies, b'gad! Through the customs like a flash, the bounder!

And there go the others, too. And she after them--she, by James! G.o.d!

Where are Ducroix and his men? Why aren't they here?"--looking vainly about for some sign of the Chief of Police. "I can't do anything without _him_--here, on foreign soil. Why in heaven's name doesn't the man come?"

"Maybe he hasn't had time, guv'ner--maybe he wasn't on hand when the message arrived," hazarded Dollops. "It's not fifteen minutes all told since it was dispatched. So if----"

"There she goes! there she goes! Pa.s.sed, and through the customs in a wink, the Jezebel!" interposed Narkom, in a fever of excitement, as he saw Margot go by the inspector at the door and walk out into the streets of the city. "Lord! if she slips me now----"

"She shan't!" cut in Dollops, jerking down his hat brim and turning up his collar. "Wait here till the cops come. I'll nip out after her and see where she goes. Like as not the cops'll know the place when you mention it; but if they don't--watch out for me; I'll come back and lead 'em."

Then he moved hurriedly forward, pa.s.sed the inspector, and was gone in a twinkling.

For ten wretched minutes after he, too, had pa.s.sed the customs and was at liberty to leave, Narkom paced up and down and fretted and fumed before a sound of clanking sabres caught his ear and, looking round, he saw M. Ducroix enter the place at the head of a detachment of police. He hurried to him and in a word made himself known.

"Ten million pardons, m'sieur; but I was absent when the message he shall be deliver," exclaimed Ducroix in broken English. "I shall come and shall bring my men as soon as he shall be receive. M'sieur, who shall it be this great criminal you demand of me to arrest? Is he here?"

"No, no. A moment, Ducroix. Do you know a place called the Inn of the Seven Sinners?"

"Perfectly. It is but a stone's throw distant--on the Quai d'Lorme."

"Come with me to it, then. I'll make you the most envied man in France, Ducroix: I'll deliver into your hands that witch of the underworld, Margot, the Queen of the Apaches!"

Ducroix's face lit up like a face transfigured.

"M'sieur!" he cried. "That woman? You can give me that woman? You know her? You can recognize her? But, yes, I remember! You shall have her in your hands once in your own country, but she shall slip you, as she shall slip everybody!"

"She won't slip _you_, then, I promise you that!" said Narkom.

"Reward and glory, both shall be yours. I have followed her across the channel, Ducroix. I know where she is to be found for a certainty. She is at the Inn of the Seven Sinners. Just take me there and I'll turn the Jezebel over to you."

Ducroix needed no urging. The prospect of such a capture made him fairly beside himself with delight. In twenty swift words he translated this glorious news to his men--setting them as wild with excitement as he was himself--then with a sharp, "Come, m'sieur!" he turned on his heel and led the breathless race for the goal.

Halfway down the narrow, ink-black street that led to the inn they encountered Dollops pelting back at full speed.

"Come on, guv'ner, come on, all of you!" he broke out as he came abreast of them. "She's there--they're all there--kickin' up Meg's diversions, sir, and singin' and dancin' like mad. And, sir, he's there, too--the pedler chap! I see him come up and sneak in with the rest. Come on! This way, all of you."

If they had merely run before, they all but flew now; for this second a.s.surance that Margot, the great and long-sought-for Margot, was actually within their reach served to spur every man to outdo himself; so that it was but a minute or two later when they came in sight of the inn and bore down upon it in a solid phalanx. And then--just then--when another minute would have settled everything--the demon of mischance chose to play them a scurvy trick.

All they knew of it was that an Apache coming out of the building for some purpose of his own looked up and saw them, then faced round and bent back in the doorway; that of a sudden a very tornado of music and laughter and singing and dancing rolled out into the night, and that when they came pounding up to the doorway, the fellow was lounging there serenely smoking; and, inside, his colleagues were holding a revel wild enough to wake the dead.

In the winking of an eye he was carried off his feet and swept on by this sudden inrush of the law; the door clashed open, the little slatted barrier beyond was knocked aside, and the police were pouring into the room and running headlong into a spinning ma.s.s of wild dancers.

The band ceased suddenly as they appeared, the dancers cried out as if in a panic of alarm, and at Ducroix's commanding "Surrender in the name of the Law!" a fat woman behind the bar flung up her arms and voiced a despairing shriek.

"Soul of misfortune! for what, m'sieur--for what?" she cried. "It is no sin to laugh and dance. We break no law, my customers and I.

What is it you want that you come in upon us like this?"

Ah, what indeed? Not anything that could be seen. A glance round the room showed nothing and no one but these suddenly disturbed dancers, and of Margot and the Mauravanian never a sign.

"M'sieur!" began Ducroix, turning to Narkom, whose despair was only too evident, and who, in company with Dollops, was rushing about the place pushing people here and there, looking behind them, looking in all the corners, and generally deporting themselves after the manner of a couple of hounds endeavouring to pick up a lost scent.

"M'sieur, shall it be an error, then?"

Narkom did not answer. Of a sudden, however, he remembered what had been said of the trap and, pushing aside a group of girls standing over it, found it in the middle of the floor.

"Here it is--this is the way she got out!" he shouted. "Bolted, by James! bolted on the under side! Up with it, up with it--the Jezebel got out this way." But though Ducroix and Dollops aided him, and they pulled and tugged and tugged and pulled, they could not budge it one inch.

"M'sieur, no--what madness! He is not a trap--? no, he is not a trap at all!" protested old Marise. "It is but a square where the floor broke and was mended! Mother of misfortune, it is nothing but that."

What response Narkom might have made was checked by a sudden discovery. Huddling in a corner, feigning a drunken sleep, he saw a man lying with his face hidden in his folded arms. It was the pedler. He pounced on the man and jerked up his head before the fellow could prevent it or could dream of what was about to happen.

"Here's one of them at least!" he cried, and fell to shaking him with all his force. "Here's one of Margot's pals, Ducroix. You shan't go empty-handed after all."

A cry of consternation fluttered through the gathering as he brought the man's face into view. Evidently they were past masters of the art of acting, these Apaches, for one might have sworn that every man and every woman of them was taken aback by the fellow's presence.

"Mother of Miracles! who shall the man be?" exclaimed Marise.

"Messieurs, I know him not. I have not seen him in all my life before. Cochon, speak up! Who are you, that you come in like this and get a respectable widow in trouble, dog? Eh?"

The man made a motion first to his ears, then to his mouth, then fell to making movements in the sign language, but spoke never a word.

"La, la! he is a deaf mute, m'sieur," said Ducroix. "He hears not and speaks not, poor unfortunate."

"Oh, doesn't he?" said Narkom with an ugly laugh. "He spoke well enough a couple of hours back, I promise you. My young friend here and I heard him when he paid off the fisherman who had carried him over to Dover just before he sneaked aboard the packet to come back with Margot and the Mauravanian."

The eyes of the Apaches flew to the man's face with a sudden keen interest which only they might understand; but he still stood, wagging his great head either drunkenly or idiotically, and pointing to ears and mouth.

"Lay hold of him--run him in!" said Narkom, whirling him across into the arms of a couple of stalwart Sergeants de Ville. "I'll go before the magistrate and lay a charge against him in the morning that will open your eyes when you hear it. One of a bloodthirsty, dynamiting crew, the dog! Lay fast hold of him! don't let him get away on your lives! G.o.d! to have lost that woman! to have lost her after all!"

It was a sore blow, certainly, but there was nothing to do but to grin and bear it; for to seek Margot at any of the inns which might communicate with the sewer trap, or to hunt for her and a motor boat on the dark water's surface, was in very truth like looking for a needle in a haystack, and quite as hopeless. He therefore, decided to go, for the rest of the night, to the nearest hotel; and waiting only to see the pedler carried away in safe custody, and promising to be on hand when he was brought up before the local magistrate in the morning, took Dollops by the arm and dejectedly went his way.

The morning saw him living up to his promise; and long before the arrival of the magistrate or, indeed, before the night's harvest of prisoners was brought over from the lockup and thrust into the three little "detention rooms" below the court, he was there with Dollops and Ducroix, observing with wonder that groups of evil-looking fellows of the Apache breed were hanging round the building as he approached, and that later on others of the same kidney slipped in and took seats in the little courtroom and kept constantly whispering one to the other while they waited for the morning session to begin.