I
Quick on the heels of the case of the Burnt Barn followed the next ofthe Red Triangle affairs. Indeed, the interval was barely two days. Mr.Victor Peytral, it will be remembered, had declined to reveal to Hewittthe addresses of the two houses in London which he had seen Mayes visit,desiring to think the matter over for a few days first; but before anymore could be heard from him, news of another sort was brought byInspector Plummer.
It may give some clue to the period whereabout the whole mystery of theRed Triangle began to be cleared up if I say that at the time ofPlummer's visit this country was on the very verge of war with a greatEuropean State. It is a State with which the present relations ofEngland are of the friendliest description, and, since the dreadedcollision was happily averted, there is no need to particularise in thematter now, especially as the name of the country with which we were atvariance matters nothing as regards the course of events I am torelate. Though most readers will recognise it at once when I say thatthe war, had it come to that, would have been a naval war of greatmagnitude; and that during the time of tension swift but quietpreparations were going forward at all naval depots, and movements anddispositions of our fleet were arranged that extended to the remotestparts of the ocean.
It was at the height of the excitement, and, as I have said, two daysafter the return of Hewitt and myself from Throckham, when the case ofthe Burnt Barn had been disposed of, that Detective-Inspector Plummercalled. I was in Hewitt's office at the time, having, in fact, called inon my way to learn if he had heard more from Mr. Victor Peytral, for, asmay be imagined, I was as eager to penetrate the mystery of the Triangleas Hewitt himself--perhaps more so, since Hewitt was a man inured tomysteries. I had hardly had time to learn that Peytral had not yet madeup his mind so far as to write, when Plummer pushed hurriedly into theroom.
"Excuse my rushing in like this," he said, "but your lad told me that itwas Mr. Brett who was with you, and the matter needs hurry. You've heardno more of that fellow--Myatt, Hunt, Mayes, whatever his name islast--since the barn murder, of course? Has Peytral given you the tip hehalf promised?"
Hewitt shook his head again. "Brett has this moment come to ask the samequestion," he said. "I have heard nothing."
"I must have it," said Plummer, emphatically. "Do you think he will tellme?"
Hewitt shook his head again. "Scarcely likely," he said. "He's an oddfellow, this Mr. Peytral--a foreigner, with revenge in his blood. I havedone him and his daughter some little service, and he told me all hisprivate history; but he seemed even then disposed to keep Mayes tohimself and let nobody interfere with his own vengeance. But I will wireif you like. What is it?"
"I'll tell you," said Plummer, pushing the door close behind him. "I'lltell you--in confidence, of course--because you've seen more of thismysterious rascal than I have, and--equally in confidence, ofcourse--Mr. Brett may hear, too, since he's been in several of the casesalready. Well, of course, we all know well enough that we want thiscreature--Mayes, we may as well call him, I suppose, now--for threemurders, at least, to say nothing of other things. That's all very well,and we might have got him with time. But now we want him for somethingelse; and it's such a thing that _we must have him at once_, orelse"--and Plummer pursed his lips and snapped his fingerssignificantly. "We can't wait over this, Mr. Hewitt; _we've got to havethat man to-day_, if it can be done. And there's more than ordinarydepending on it. It's the country this time. The Admiralty telegraphiccode has been stolen!"
"By Mayes?"
Plummer shrugged his shoulders. "That's to be proved," he said; "but hewas seen leaving the office at about the time the loss occurred, andthat's enough to set me after him; and there's not another clue of anysort. Mr. Hewitt, I wish you were in the official service!"
Hewitt smiled. "You flatter me," he said, "as you have done before. Butwhy in this case particularly?"
"It's a case altogether out of the ordinary, and one of a string ofsuch, all of which you have at your fingers' ends. And I don't mindconfessing that this man Mayes is a little too big a handful forone--for me, at any rate. I wish you could work with me over this; infact, in the special circumstances I've a good mind to ask to have youretained, as an exceptional measure. But the thing's urgent, and there'sred-tape!"
Hewitt had taken a glance at his desk tablet, which he now flung down.
"I'll do it for love," he said, "if necessary. My appointment list isuncommonly slack just now, and even if it weren't, I'd make aconsiderable sacrifice rather than be out of this. This fellow Mayes isa dangerous man; and I feel it a point of honour that he shall notcontinue to escape. Moreover, I have begun to form a certain theory asto the Red Triangle, and all there is at the back of it--a theory Iwould rather keep to myself till I see a little more, since as it standsit may only strike you as fantastic, and if it is wrong it may lead someof us off the track; but it is a theory I wish to test to the end. SoI'm with you, Plummer, if you'll allow it; and you can make yourofficial application for a special retainer or not, just as you please."
Plummer was plainly delighted.
"Most certainly I will," he said. "Shall I give you the heads of thecase, or will you come to the Admiralty and see for yourself?"
"Both, I think," said Hewitt. "But first I will send a telegram toPeytral. Then you can give me the heads of the case as we go along, andI will look at the place for myself. I am in this case heart and soul,pay or no pay--and I expect my friend Brett would like to be in it, too.Is there any objection?"
"Well," Plummer answered, a little doubtfully, "we're glad of outsidehelp, of course, but I'm not sure, officially----"
"Of course you are always glad of outside help," Hewitt interrupted,"and in this case we may possibly find Brett more useful than you think.Consider now. He has seen a good deal of these cases--quite as much asyou, in fact--but he is the only one of the three of us whom Mayes doesnot know by sight. Remember, Mayes saw us both in the affair of Mr.Jacob Mason, and he saw you again in the case of the Lever Key--escaped,in fact, because he instantly recognised you. I'll answer for Brett'sdiscretion, and I'm sure he'll be glad to help, even if, for officialreasons, you may not find it possible to admit him wholly into yourcounsels."
Of course I willingly assented, and the conditions understood, Plummeroffered no further objection. Hewitt despatched his telegram, and in avery few minutes we were in a cab on the way to the Admiralty.
"This is the way of it," Plummer said. "You will remember that when welost Mayes at the end of the Lever Key case, I was waiting for him inthat city office, with an assistant, and that we only saw him for aninstant in the lift. Well, that assistant was a very intelligent man ofmine, named Corder--a fellow with a wonderful memory for a face. NowCorder is on another case just now, and we'd put him on, dressed like aloafer, to hang about Whitehall and the neighbourhood, watching for someone we want. Well, this morning there came an urgent message to the Yardfrom the Admiralty, to ask for a responsible official at once, and I wassent. As I came along I saw Corder lounging about, and of course I tookno notice--it would not do for us people from the Yard to recognise eachother too readily in the street. But Corder came up, and made pretenceto ask me for a match to light his pipe; and under cover of that he toldme that he had seen Mayes not an hour before, coming out of theAdmiralty. At this, of course, I pricked up my ears. I didn't know whatthey wanted me for, but if there was mischief, and that fellow had beenthere, it was likely at least that he might have been in it. Corder wasquite positive that it was the man, although he had only seen him for amoment in the lift. He hadn't seen him go into the Admiralty office, buthe was passing as he came out, and noted the time exactly, so that hemight report to me at the first opportunity. The time was 11.32, andMayes jumped into a hansom and drove off. He walked right out into themiddle of the road to stop the hansom--you know how wide the road isthere--so that Corder couldn't hear his direction to the cabman, but hetook the number as the cab went off. Corder ought to have collared himthen and there, I think, but he was
in a difficult position. It wouldhave endangered the case he was on, which is very important; andbesides, he didn't realise how much we wanted him for, having only beenbrought in as an assistant at the tail of our bond case. Still less didhe guess--any more than myself--what I was going to hear at theAdmiralty office."
"At any rate," interrupted Hewitt, "you've got the number of the cab?"
"Here it is," Plummer answered, "and I've already set a man to get holdof the cabman. You'd better note the number--92,873."
Hewitt duly noted the number, and advised me to do the same, in case Ishould chance to meet the cab during the afternoon; and as we neared ourdestination Plummer gave us the rest of the case in outline.
"In the office," he said, "I found them in a great state. A copy of thecode, or cypher, in which confidential orders and other messages aresent to the fleet all over the world, and in which reports and messagesare sent back, had disappeared during the morning. It was in charge of aMr. Robert Telfer, a clerk of responsibility and undoubted integrity. Hekept it in a small iron safe, which is let into the wall of his privateroom. It was safe when he arrived in the morning, and he immediatelyused it in order to code a telegram, and locked it in the safe again at10.20. Two hours later, at 12.20, he went to the safe for it again, inorder to de-code a message just received, and it was gone! And the lockof the safe is one that would take hours to pick, I should judge. Thereisn't a shade of a clue, so far as I can see, except this circumstanceof Mayes being seen leaving by Corder--just between Telfer's two visitsto the safe, you perceive. And of course there may be nothing in that,except for the character of the man. And that's all there is to go on,as far as I can see. I needn't tell you how important the thing is at atime like this, and how much would be paid for that secret code by acertain foreign Government. We have made hurried arrangements to havecertain places watched, and as soon as I have taken you to the office Imust rush off and make a few more arrangements still. But here we are."
Mr. Robert Telfer's room was at the side of a long and gloomy corridoron the upper floor, and the door was distinguished merely by a numberand the word "Private" painted thereon. We found Mr. Telfer sittingalone, and plainly in a state of great nervous tension. He was a man offorty or thereabout, thin, alert, and using a single eye-glass. Plummerintroduced us by name, and rapidly explained our business.
"I told you the name of the party I am after, Mr. Telfer," Plummer said,"and I went straight to Mr. Martin Hewitt, as being most likely to haveinformation of him. Mr. Hewitt, whose name you know already, of course,is kind enough, seeing we're in a bad pinch, and pushed for time, tocome in and give us all the help he can. Both he and his friend, Mr.Brett, know a good deal of the doings of the person we're after, andtheir assistance is likely to be of the very greatest value. Do you mindgiving Mr. Hewitt any information he may ask? I must rush over to theYard to put some other inquiries on foot, and to set an observation ortwo, but I'll be back presently."
"Certainly," Mr. Telfer answered, "I'm only too anxious to give anyinformation whatever--so long as it is nothing departmentallyforbidden--which will help to put this horrible matter right. Please askme anything, and be patient if my answers are not very clear. I havebeen much overworked lately, as you may imagine, and have had verylittle sleep; and now this terrible misfortune has upset me completely;for, of course, I am held responsible for that copy of the code, and ifit isn't recovered, and quickly, I am ruined--to say nothing, ofcourse, of the far more serious consequences in other directions."
"That is the safe in which it was kept, I presume?" Hewitt said,indicating a small one let into the wall. "May I examine it?"
"Certainly." Mr. Telfer turned and produced the keys from his pocket."The code was here, lying on this shelf when I needed it this morning atten. I took it out, used it, returned it to the same place exactly, andlocked the safe door. Then I took the draft of the telegram, togetherwith the copy in cypher, into the Controller's room, gave it into safehands, and returned here."
Hewitt narrowly examined the lock of the safe with his pocket lens."There are no signs of the lock having been picked," he said, "even ifthat were possible. As a matter of fact, this is a lock that would takehalf a day to pick, even with a heavy bag of tools. No, I don't thinkthat was the way of it. You have no doubt about locking the safe door at10.20, I suppose, before you went to the Controller's room?"
"No possible doubt whatever. You see, I left the whole bunch of keyshanging in the lock while I coded the telegram. It was a short one, andwas soon done. Then I returned the code to its place, locked the safe,and then used another key on the bunch to lock a drawer in this desk. Ihad no occasion to go to the safe again till about 12.20, when theController's secretary came here with a telegram to be de-coded. Thesafe was still locked then, but when it was opened the code was gone."
"You had had no occasion to go to the safe in the meantime?"
"None at all. I locked it at 10.20, and I unlocked it two hours later,and that was all."
"You were not in the room the whole of the time, of course?"
"Oh, no. I have told you that at 10.20 I went to the Controller's room,and after that I went out two or three times on one occasion or another.But each time I locked the door of the room."
"Oh, you did? That is important. And you took all your keys with you, Ipresume?"
"Yes, all. The keys on the bunch I took in my pocket, of course, and theroom door key I also took. There are one or two rather important paperson my desk, you see, and anybody from the corridor might come in if thedoor were left unlocked."
"The lock of the door would be a good deal easier to pick than that ofthe safe," Hewitt observed, after examining it. "But that would be of nogreat use with the safe locked. Shortly, then, the facts are these. Youlocked the code safely away at 10.20, you left the room two or threetimes, but each time the door, as well as the safe, was locked, and thekeys in your pocket; and then, at 12.20, or two hours exactly after thecode had been put safely away, you opened the safe again in presence ofthe Controller's secretary, and the code had vanished. That is the wholematter in brief, I take it?"
"Precisely." Mr. Telfer was pallid and bewildered. "It seems a totalimpossibility," he said; "a total, absolute, physical impossibility; butthere it is."
"But as no such thing as a physical impossibility ever happens," Hewittreplied calmly, "we must look further. Now, are there any other waysinto this room than by that door into the corridor? I see another doorhere. What is that?"
"That door has been locked for ages. The room on the other side is onelike this, with a door in the corridor; it is used chiefly to store olddocuments of no great importance, and I believe that whole stacks ofthem, in bundles, are piled against the other side of that same door. Wewill send for the key and see, if you like."
The key was sent for, and the door from the corridor opened. As Telferhad led us to expect, the place was full of old papers in bundles andparcels, thick with ancient dust, and these things were piled highagainst the door next his room, and plainly had not been disturbed formonths, or even years.
"There remains the skylight," said Hewitt, "for I perceive, Mr. Telfer,that your room is lighted from above, and has no window; while the grateis a register. There seems to be no opening in that skylight but therevolving ventilator. Am I right?"
"Quite so. There is no getting in by the skylight without breaking it,and, as you see, it has not been broken. Certainly there are men on theroof repairing the leads, but it is plain enough that nobody has comethat way. The thing is wholly inexplicable."
"At present, yes," Hewitt said, musingly. He stood for a few moments indeep thought.
"Plummer is longer away than I expected," he said presently. "By theway, what was the external appearance of the missing code?"
"It was nothing but a sort of thin manuscript book, made of a few sheetsof foolscap size, sewn in a cover of thickish grey paper. I left it inthe safe doubled lengthwise, and tied with tape in the middle."
"Its loss is a very
serious thing, of course?"
"Oh, terribly, terribly serious, Mr. Hewitt," Telfer replied,despairingly. "I am responsible, and it will put an end to my career,of course. But the consequences to the country are more important, andthey may be disastrous--enormously so. A great sum would be paid forthat code on the Continent, I need hardly say."
"But now that you know it is taken, surely the code can be changed?"
"It's not so easy as it seems, Mr. Hewitt," Telfer answered, shaking hishead. "It means time, and I needn't tell you that with affairs in theirpresent state we can't afford one moment of time. Some expedients arebeing attempted, of course, but you will understand that any new codewould have to be arranged with scattered items of the fleet in all partsof the world, and that probably with the present code in the hands ofthe enemy. Moreover, all our messages already sent will be accessiblewith very little trouble, and they contain all our strategical coalingand storing dispositions for a great war, Mr. Hewitt; and they can't,they _can't_ be altered at a moment's notice! Oh, it is terrible!... Buthere is Inspector Plummer. No news, I suppose, Mr. Plummer?"
"Well, no," Plummer answered deliberately. "I can't say I've any newsfor _you_, Mr. Telfer, just yet. But I want to talk about a few thingsto Mr. Hewitt. Hadn't we better go and see if your telegram isanswered, Mr. Hewitt? Unless you've heard."
"No, I haven't," Hewitt replied. "We'll go on at once. Good-day for thepresent, Mr. Telfer. I hope to bring good news when next I see you."
"I hope so, too, Mr. Hewitt, most fervently," Telfer answered; and hislooks confirmed his words.
We walked in silence through the corridor, down the stairs, and out bythe gates into the street. Then Plummer turned on his heel and facedHewitt.
"That man's a wrong 'un," he said, abruptly, jerking his thumb in thedirection of the office we had just left. "I'll tell you about it in thecab."
As soon as our cab was started on its way back to Hewitt's officePlummer explained himself.
"He's been watched," he said, "has Mr. Telfer, when he didn't know it;and he'll be watched again for the rest of to-day, as I've arranged.What's more, he won't be allowed to leave the office this evening tillI have seen him again, or sent a message. No need to frighten him toosoon--it mightn't suit us. But he's in it, alone or in company!"
"How do you know?"
"I'll tell you. It seems the lead roofs are being repaired at theAdmiralty, and the plumbers are walking about where they like. NowI needn't tell you I've had a man or two fishing about among thedoorkeepers and so on at the Admiralty, and one of them found a plumberhe knew slightly, working on the roof. That plumber happens to be nofool--a bit smarter than the detective-constable, it seems to me, infact. Anyhow, he seems to have got more out of my man than my man gotout of him; and soon after I reached the Yard he turned up, asking tosee me. He said he'd heard that a valuable paper was missing (he didn'tknow what) from the room with the skylight in the top floor, where thegentleman with the single eye-glass was, and where the safe was let inthe wall; and he wanted to know what would be the reward for anybodygiving information about it. Of course I couldn't make any promise, andI gave him to understand that he would have to leave the amount of thereward to the authorities, if his information was worth anything; also,that we were getting to work fast, and that if he wished to be first togive information he'd better be quick about it; but I promised to make aspecial report of his name and what he had to say if it were useful. Andit will be, or I'm vastly mistaken! For just you see here. Our friend,Mr. Telfer, says he put that code safely away at 10.20 in the safe, andthat he never went to the safe again till 12.20, when the Controller'ssecretary was with him; never went to it for anything whatever,observe. Well, the plumber happened to be near the skylight at half-pasteleven, and he is prepared to swear that he saw Mr. Telfer--'the gentwith the eye-glass,' as he calls him--go to the safe, unlock it, takeout a grey paper, folded lengthwise, with red tape round it, re-lock thesafe, and carry that paper out into the corridor! The plumber waskneeling by a brazier, it seems, which was close by the skylight, and heis so certain of the time because he was regulating his watch byWestminster Hall clock, and compared it when the half-hour struck, whichwas just while Telfer was absent in the corridor with the paper. He wasonly gone a second or two, and you will remember that Corder saw Mayesleaving the premises within two minutes of that time!"
"Yes!"
"Well, Telfer was back in a second or two, _without the paper_, and wenton with his affairs as before. That's pretty striking, eh?"
"Yes," Hewitt answered thoughtfully, "it is."
"It was a sort of shot in the dark on the part of the plumber, for heknew nothing else--nothing about Telfer legitimately having the keys ofthe safe, nor any of the particulars we have been told. He merely knewthat a paper was missing, and having seen a paper taken out of the safehe got it into his head that he had possibly witnessed the theft; andhe kept his knowledge to himself till he could see somebody inauthority. Mighty keen, too, about a reward!"
"And now you are having Telfer supervised?"
"I am. Not that we're likely to get the code from him; that's passedout, sure enough, in Mayes's hands--or else his pockets."
To this confident expression of opinion Hewitt offered no reply, andpresently we alighted at his office, eager to learn if Peytral had giventhe information Hewitt so much desired. Sure enough a telegram wasthere, and it ran thus:
/# "On the night you know of, Mayes went first to 37 Raven Street, Blackfriars, then to 8 Norbury Row, Barbican. Message follows."#/
"Now we're at work," Hewitt said, briskly, "and for a while we part. Ishall make a few changes of dress, and go to take a look at 37 RavenStreet, Blackfriars. Will you two go on to Norbury Row? You'll have tobe careful, Plummer, and not show yourself. That is where Brett will beuseful, since he isn't known; if anybody is to be seen let it be him. Ishall be very careful myself--though I shall have some little disguise;and I fancy I shall not be so likely to be seen as you."
"What are we to do?" I asked.
"Well, of course, if you see Mayes in the open, grab him instantly. Ineedn't tell Plummer _that_. I think Plummer would naturally seize himon the spot, rush him off to the nearest station and go back with enoughmen to clear out No. 8 Norbury Row. If you don't see him you'll keep anobservation, according to Plummer's discretion. But, unless someexceptional chance occurs, I hope you won't go rushing in till wecommunicate with each other--we must work together, and I may have news.My instinct seems to tell me that yours is the right end of the stick,at Barbican. But we must neglect nothing, and that is why I want you tohold on there while I make the necessary examination at the other end.Do you know this Norbury Row, Plummer?"
"I think I know every street and alley in the City," Plummer answered."There is a very good publican at the corner of Norbury Row, who's beenuseful to the police a score of times. He keeps his eyes open, and Ishall be surprised if he can't give us _some_ information about No. 8,anyhow. Moon's his name, and the house is 'The Compasses.' I shall gothere first. And if you've any message to send, send it through him.I'll tell him."
On the stairs Plummer and I encountered another of his assistants."I've got the cab, sir," he reported. "Waiting outside now. Took up afare in Whitehall, opposite the Admiralty, and drove him to CharterhouseStreet; got down just by the Meat Market. That's all the man seems toknow."
Plummer questioned the cabman, and found that as a matter of fact thatwas all he did know. So, telling him to wait to take us our littlejourney, we returned and reported his information to Hewitt.
"Just as I expected," he said, quietly. "He stopped the cab a bit shortof his destination, of course,--just as you will, no doubt. There's nota great deal in the evidence, but it confirms my idea."