Tennett was traced to his flat, and he was apparently a most elusive man,
with a habit of taking taxicabs in crowded thoroughfares. What Scotland
Yard might not do officially, it could do, and did do, unofficially. Wally
the Nose listened with apparent growing discomfort.
“If it’s him, he’s mustard,” he said huskily. “I don’t like messing about
with no Ringers. Besides, _he_ hasn’t got a red beard.”
“Oh, shut up!” snarled Bliss. “He could grow one, couldn’t he? See what you
can find out about him. If you happen to get into his flat and see any
papers lying about, they might help you. I’m not suggesting you should do
so, but if you did…”
Wally nodded wisely.
In three days he furnished a curious report to the detective who was
detailed to meet him. The man with the red beard had paid a visit to
Croydon aerodrome and had made inquiries about a single-seater taxi to
carry him to the Continent. He had spent a lot of his time at an electrical
supply company in the East End of London, and had made a number of
mysterious purchases which he had carried home with him in a taxicab.
Bliss consulted his superior.
“Pull him in,” he suggested. “You can get a warrant to search his flat.”
“His flat’s been searched. There’s nothing there of the slightest
importance,” reported Bliss.
He called that night at Carlton House Terrace and found Mr. Miska Guild a
very changed man. These three months had reduced him to a nervous wreck.
“No news?” he asked apprehensively when the detective came in. “Has that
wretched little creature discovered anything? By gad! he’s as clever as any
of you fellows. I was talking with him last night. He was outside on the
Terrace with one of your men. Now, Bliss, I’d better tell you the truth
about this girl in Paris—-“
“I’d rather you didn’t,” said Bliss, almost sternly.
He wanted to preserve, at any rate, a simulation of interest in Mr. Guild’s
fate.
* * * * *
He had hardly left Carlton House Terrace when a taxicab drove in and Wally
the Nose almost fell into the arms of the detective.
“Where’s Bliss?” he squeaked. “That red-whiskered feller’s disappeared…
left his house, and he’s shaved off his beard, Mr. Connor. I didn’t
recognise him when he come out. When I made inquiries I found he’d gorn for
good.”
“The chief’s just gone,” said Connor, worried.
He went into the vestibule and was taken up to the floor on which Mr. Guild
had his suite. The butler led him to the dining-room, where there was a
‘phone connection, and left Wally the Nose in the hall. He was standing
there disconsolately when Mr. Guild came out.
“Hullo! What’s the news?” he asked quickly.
Wally the Nose looked left and right.
“He’s telephonin’ to the boss,” he whispered hoarsely, “but I ain’t told
him about the letter.”
He followed Miska into the library and gave that young man a piece of news
that Mr. Guild never repeated.
He was waiting in the hall below when Connor came down.
“It’s all right–they arrested old red whiskers at Liverpool Street
Station. We had a man watching him as well.”
Wally the Nose was pardonably annoyed.
“What’s the use of having me and then puttin’ a busy on to trail him?” he
demanded truculently. “That’s what I call double-crossing.”
“You hop off to Scotland Yard and see the chief,” said Connor, and Wally,
grumbling audibly, vanished in the darkness.
The once red-bearded man sat in Inspector Bliss’s private room, and he was
both indignant and frightened.
“I don’t know that there’s any law preventing me taking off my beard, is
there?” he demanded. “I was just going off to Holland, where I’m seeing a
man who’s putting money into my power scheme.”
Bliss interrupted with a gesture.
“When you came to England you were broke, Mr. Tennett, and yet immediately
you reached London you took a very expensive flat, bought yourself a lot of
new clothes, and seemingly have plenty of money to travel on the Continent.
Will you explain that?”
The man hesitated.
“Well, I’ll tell you the truth. When I got to London I was broke, but I
got into conversation with a fellow at the station who told me he was
interested in engineering. I explained my power scheme to him, and he was
interested. He was not the kind of man I should have thought would have had
any money, yet he weighed in with two hundred pounds, and told me just what
I had to do. It was his idea that I should take the flat. He told me where
to go every day and what to do. I didn’t want to part with the old beard,
but he made me do that in the end, and then gave me three hundred pounds to
go to Holland.”
Bliss looked at him incredulously.
“Did he also suggest you should call at Carlton House Terrace and interview
Mr. Guild?”
Tennett nodded.
“Yes, he did. I tell you, it made me feel that things weren’t right. I
wasn’t quite sure of him, mind you, Mr. Bliss; he was such a
miserable-looking devil–a fellow with rabbit’s teeth and red eyelids….”
* * * * *
Bliss came to his feet with a bound, stared across at Stourbridge, who was
in the room.
“Wally!” he said.
A taxicab took him to Carlton House Terrace. Connor told him briefly what
had happened.
“Did Wally see Mr. Guild?”
“Not that I know,” said Connor, shaking his head.
Bliss did not wait for the lift; he flew up the stairs, met the footman in
the hall.
“Where’s Mr. Guild?”
“In his room, sir.”
“Have you seen him lately?”
The man shook his head.
“No, sir; I never go unless he rings for me. He hasn’t rung for half an
hour.”
Bliss turned the handle of the door and walked in. Miska Guild was lying on
the hearthrug in the attitude of a man asleep, and when he turned him over
on his back and saw his face Bliss knew that the true story of the
chorus-girl and her “suicide” would never be told.
_CHAPTER II CASE OF THE HOME SECRETARY_
There were two schools of thought at Scotland Yard. There were those who
believed that The Ringer worked single-handed, and those who were convinced
that he controlled an organisation and had the assistance of at least half
a dozen people.
Inspector Bliss was of the first school, and instanced the killing of Miska
Guild in proof.
“He’s entirely on his own,” he said. “Even his helper in that case was an
innocent man who had no idea he was being used to attract the attention of
the police.”
“By the way, is there any news of him?” asked the Assistant Commissioner.
Bliss shook his head.
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