Salute The Toff

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21187, 9 August 1940, Page 9

Salute The Toff

OUR SERIAL STORY

BY JOHN CREASEY

CHAPTER XXlll.—(Continued) He thought over the affair as he drove. He had been able to talk with McNab, learning that as far as the policeman had been able to ; find out, there was' no personal connection between Redsmith and Sir Bruce Wellward, which shut up one i line of inquiry. | He was reasonably sure of Selsom ! now—but there was one thing he had | to remember. ■ Irma Cardew had not known who ! she was working for! ! That meant, he told himself, that I she might have killed Selsom, not knowing who he was. That she would have murdered the man that day was certain, but it did not entirely let Gabriel Selsom out. True, it was hard to believe the wanted man would have gone to the trouble of driving into Surrey with ten thousand pounds in notes, to pay out. But Selsom—although officially afraid of the police and nervous of the Toff, because they might let him down with the man who was running the crimes—would have had the money back, if he were the ringleader. And by half telling the Toff he j was going to see Irma that day, he i had virtually put himself in a nasty i position, if the leader discovered it. That was inconsistent with his fears. It might be, the Toff admitted* that Selsom had put a very clever show up, to deceive the police and the Toff, and been very nearly a victim of his own gang. Possibility A, thought the Toff, and then they reached Gresham Terrace. And in the Toff’s front room Sir Bruce Wellward was pacing up and down, like a man possessed. He al- ! most flung himself at the Toff, and j Pete Delray was conscious of a terj rible fear. ! “Richard! They’ve got her—they’ve got her! And he ’phoned me ” | “Who did?” snapped Rollison, and Pete Delray was standing like a figure carved from stone. “The man—the man behind it! Unless you drop out—unless I officially withdraw the police and pay them a hundred thousand pounds, they’ll kill her! Kill her! Richard—you’ve got to find her. you’ve got to!” The Hon. Richard Rollison was i looking like a man who had nothing to live for. His face was bleak, and j his voice was dreadfully cold. I So they are still working. How : did they get at her?” j “I don’t know! Nobody saw her go out, but her room was in disorder, and there was blood—she’d been | hurt, Richard!” I “The—swines!” snapped Pete Del--1 ray, but Rollison snapped an order for him to keep quiet. “What about tne police?” “The only car that came up was a police van, Rollison. The two detectives thought ” “I’ll see them,” snapped Rollison. • “Where are they?” “Still at the house.” “Come on,” said Rollison. | He had an idea of what Pete Del- ! ray was feeling, but he said no word as the car—dangerously over-filled : now that Wellward had been added ' —went through London at a suicidal speed, and pulled up at the baronet’s St. John’s Wood house, i Two policemen were waiting out- ! side, and two apparently puzzled, worried detectives were in the hall. Rollison knew them both, and he wasted no words, j “What happened?” I “I can’t understand it,” said one of : the men. “We had two constables outside. I was at the front, Jones at the back. We didn’t hear a sound of a struggle, and I could swear that no one went out. The only car that pulled up was a Squad Car, with a message from the Yard.” “Recognise the driver?” “Of course.” Seeing The Truth Rollison nodded. He lit a cigarette, with a deliberation that could ■ have made Pete Delray cry out. The Toff’s face was still bleak, still incredibly hard, as though he was seej ing a truth against which he was fighting with all the strength he pos- ' ~ He knew the rear of the house. It was true that it faced—or backed on—an open space, but no one—and certainly not a man carrying an unconscious girl, could have got across without the police guards seeing it. No more could they have got out ! at the front. I Jones, a short, stoutish man, was ; fingering his upper lip. The other man took it better. “I can swear ” he began, but the Toff cut him short. “The girl was in the house, and she’s gone. You’ve searched all the rooms?” “Of course.”

“The struggle means someone at- ! tacked her,” said the Toff, “and we know that there’s been someone on Wellward’s staff in the pay of Irma and the others. But they couldn’t have got her out of here without you knowing it.” | Jones was trembling. I “They couldn’t—but '.hey did’!’ | “Not necessarily,” said the Toff ! slowly. “You might have helped ! them, Jones. Don’t argue! You were at the back, were you.’” The Yard man was looking as though the world had gone wrong—but Pete Delray could not think he looked guilty. I 'But 1 tell you ” “And a bribe—a big bribe—has I been known to do wonders,” said the ! Toff. ' “It looks as if we’d better have McNab here, Bruce.” He smiled 1 at Wellward, but asked Pete to ring the Yard, for McNab to come round as quickly as he could. The first detective protested. Look here, sir, I know it seems bad, but I'm sure Jones didn’t ” “You can’t be sure of anything,” snapped the Toff. “I tell you again, that it the girl left here, someone must have seen her, and it was more likely to be the back entrance than the front. That’s so?” The man looked miserable. “Well ” “The only other possibility,” said the Toff slowly, “is that you didn’t search properly, and she s still in the house. Is there any room you didn’t search?” The detective shook his head, but Jones said softly: ‘Only one, sir. Sir Bruce’s study.” Rollison laughed. “Because. Sir Bruce was there?” “Yes.” (To be continued?