The Colonel's Enemy.
CHAPTER XXX.—Continued
"You may leave it to your man.' the inspector said; "not that I think' you will get anything by it—but if you hear a hint worth taking, you will let me know?" '
"I will. Are you likely to be in London again soan?" "I shall be backward and forward once or twice a week until this business is over.''
"You speak," said De Vigne, "as if you were sure you are on the right track." "And I feel sure of it," the inspector said as he rose. " When I take a case in hand presonally I am not likely to go wrong, and though I should not get a penny of the reward authorities will not allow it—l feel it a point of honour to be first in the field, It is a Liverpool case, you see, sir, and I have been twitted about it in more than one quarter. People seem to think'that a man in my position ought to see everything at once, which I could not, even if I had as many eyes as there are jewels in a peacock's tail."
''And if you were a second Argus," said the major, "Mr Crombie 'Would tayade you sori]§ megns or Other." "
* "[!j not now who Mf I may have been," said the inspefi-S?; : "but if he was in our line he was no better than the detectives of the present day, We hear a lot of fouche and Vidocq and Pinkerton; but we make material for no end of stories quite as wonderful as any told of them, only we have to work in the dark and are not allowed to let our doings be known. Here, for instance, is this man Cvombie. lam pretty well sure he is in London, and when that is said I should like to know how many people realize what is means?" "It is a large place, certainly," the doctor assented. "It is not that so much, sir, but it gets so mixed. - Thirty or forty years ago, when you mapped out a certain district, you knew exa.tly what kind of people you would find in it. The old nobility would turn in their graves if they could see what I have seen. A sporting bookmaker in Piccadilly and a vaudeville actor in Grosvenor Square. It's something awful. As for the aristocracy, they mu3t fell as if q revolution had set in, for when they ride or drive in the park they are jostled by a crowd whose fathers and mothers would have been more at home on Hampstead Heath iu the holiday season," The major, laughed. "You favour the aristocracy, Mr Darlington'/"
"I am,a Tory, as my father was before me, and he did not hold with the mixing up of classes any more than I do. As likely as not, when I do find this Crombie, it will be in some quiet West End street, with a duchess on one side of him and a gentleman with a pedigree on the other., Jtsut Ido not mind where X. find him, so that I do find Him, And now, major, how am I to find you if 1 happen to want yoa in a .hurry?" *'l will always leave wurd here. I am never very far away. When I am not at home you may be nearly sura that I am at my club or in Canon Street." "Very well, sir, and do Rut be surprised if. I come for you ar any moment. My information will be complete in a few weeks at furthest; but something may come to light in the meantime." When he had said good-night and j was going", he paus3d at the door, as i if arrested by an afterthought. "Itou will treat wHat I have told "a secret, please," he said. WQ me that in some mysSelfflS. ~tep we take is 'ttrisdi way ever* n am on kflbtf fi, ahd a whisper tha*i s Crombie's track, that 1 kfiQW he -■. living, might be fatal to tfes €ol" | onel, for if Crombie saw that ths | network was closing in, he is just | the kind of man to sacrifice 1 . enemy out of shaer revenge I rather 1 than go \q his ruin <?r his death] cMAPTER^xif.' JOSiEPii bITToF'S Th'e majoir felt font Darlington's advice was Hot to be disregarded. Coming from such a man, it had all the weight of a solemn warning, and it made him very anxious for the end., He and De Vigne had given the required promis«v and the inspector was gone before Lugard saw how completely the promise fettered him." "We ought to make an exception in Mr Dacre's favour," he said. "So deeply interested as he is he would be glad to know that we are on the right track at last." "Mr Dacre is not in a fit condition to be troubled about anything," De Vigne replied. "If it were ' necessary, I, as his medical adviser, should strictly forbid you to men- , tion the subject tp him, but you will leave it to my discretion, I- am Bure " "Most certainly. You hold the command in that department; and I ,am too old a soldier not to know the value of obedience. But what do you think of Darlington's information; was it not a surprise?" "The entire ,case is so full of surprises that I hardly know what to think; every .piece of reliable evidence we obtain seems to contradict what has gone before, and' when ] have built up an almost perfect theory, something comes to topple it over, as we see a child thrust its finger into a house of cards and bring he whole edifice down." ' ° . "So it seems to me," the msjoi said; and then he paused with i curious hesitation. "Did it nol strike you as peculiar, De Vigne, another odd coincidence as it were, that when Darlington told us of Dallas Crombie's family, he- shoulc
By WINTHROP B. HARLAND. $ Author of " Lady Elgin's Secret,'' " A Harvest of Shame," "The Elder Son," "Lord Ashton's Heir," Etc. 1
have almost exactly described Mrs Dacre, Leonard and poor Aunt Hannah?"
"That is utter nonsense," said De Vigne impatiently. "Forgive me, major, for I cannot help saying so. But I wonder that you, a clearheaded man of the world, should for an instant see a coincidence in that. Why, see what numbers of men there are even in our own cir"le of acquaintances who have
rather eccentric sister and a widowed s'ster-in-law with a grown-up son."
"True," the major assented, though he could not think of such an acquaintance at the moment; "but the association of ideas was involuntary and irresistible."
"And untenable as the basis of a theory," the doctor said. "Many men, physicians and detectives in particular, go wrong by allowing a false impression to become a fixed one and making it a starting-point; and do you realise what you mean if you give a definite form to, your idea of an odd coincidence?"
"Not quite. It was only a passing fancy." "Yes. But if you had mentioned that passing fancy to anybody else, }t might have caused incalculable mischief. Your associations of ideas connect the Crombie brothers with Mr Dace," "Good heayens!" said the astonished major, "so it would; then, of course. Darlington's impression that Dallas Crombie is living would be knocked to bits, tor Mrs Dacre would be his widow.'" "Exactly. But'the entire supposition is too absurd except as an illustration."
"Except as an illustration," the major said, "of course. I might as well suspect you of stealing my loose cash as think Mr Dacre capable of being implicated in such a matter. But what a clever fellow Darlington is." "Very," said De Vighe smiling, with his teeth closed. ! "I begin to think we shall owe the elucidation of the mystery to him." As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and it opened to admit Joseph Ditton. He was very pale, and his short, brown hair was so arranged as to, as far as possible hide some extensive strips of surgical plaster. De Vigne, who saw at once that the man was really ill, sprang up and poured out a glasß of wine for him. "My good fellow," he said, "what on earth have you been doing' Why, you have been nearly murdered!" The major wheeled his own chair forward and placed Ditton in it. in spite of the poor fellow's respectful expostulation. [to be continued.]
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WAG19090407.2.3
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3157, 7 April 1909, Page 2
Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,419The Colonel's Enemy. Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3157, 7 April 1909, Page 2
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Wairarapa Age. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.