I
Mayes's stronghold was taken, but Mayes had escaped us once again; thecage was in our hands, but the bird had flown.
Martin Hewitt, however, had his plans, as he was soon to show. Therecovery of the Admiralty code was a good stroke, and was a satisfactoryending to an important case; but that, and even the capture of thecurious premises behind the Barbican, made but a halting-place in hispursuit of Mayes, and as soon as I was in some degree recovered from mystruggle, and the captured place had been hastily searched, the chasewas resumed without a moment's delay; and that adventure was enteredupon which saw the end of the Red Triangle and its unholy doings--whichcame terribly near to seeing the end of Hewitt himself, in fact.
I have not described the den near the Barbican with any greatparticularity, but I have said that the office, accessible from the openstreet, was only connected with the hidden premises behind--premises, aswas afterwards discovered, held under a separate tenancy--by aneasily-shifted ladder. It was in these hidden premises, approached bythe maze of courts and the stable-yard, that the main evidences ofMayes's way of life were observable. The passage where my wrist had beenlocked to the wall, and the room or cellar in which Plummer had beenconfined, were the only parts of the lower premises fitted for thedetention of prisoners, with the exception of one very low and whollyunlighted cellar, entered by a trapdoor and a very steep flight of bricksteps. This place smelt horribly faint and stagnant; but it produced onmy mind, both then and when I examined it later, an effect of horror andrepulsion more than could be accounted for by the smell alone. Of itshistory nothing was discovered, and perhaps the feeling (though othersexperienced it as well as myself) was the effect of mere fancy; but Ihave never got rid of a conviction that that black cellar, or ratherpit--for it was very narrow--had been the instrument of crimes never tobe told.
There were one or two rooms sparely furnished--one as a bedroom, alarger room, with a long table, a sofa, and several chairs; and in oneof the smaller rooms was found a stove, ladles and crucibles for themelting down of metals--gold or silver. It was in this same room alsothat the table stood, in the drawers of which were found papers, lettersand formulae--things giving more than a hint of the use to which Mayeshad put his friendship with Mr. Jacob Mason, for of every possiblemanner and detail in which science--more particularly the science ofchemistry--could aid in the commission of crime, there were notes inthese same drawers.
But most of these things were observed in detail later. The thing thatset us once more on the trail of Mayes, that very night and that veryhour, was found in the isolated office facing the street. It was acheque-book, quite full of unused cheques.
"This cheque-book," said Hewitt to Inspector Plummer and myself, "was inthe drawer below that in which we discovered the Admiralty code. TheEastern Consolidated is the bank, as you see--Upper Holloway branch. Nowwe must follow this at once, before waiting to search any further. Theremay be something more important as a clue, or there may not, but at anyrate, while we are looking for it we are losing time. This may bring usto him at once."
"You mean that he may have some address in Holloway," suggestedPlummer, "and we may get it from the bank?"
"There's that possibility, and another," Hewitt answered. "He has had tobolt without warning or preparation, with nothing but the clothes he ranin--probably very little money. Money he will want at once, and he wouldrather not wait till the morning to get it; if he can get it at once itwill mean thirteen or fourteen hours' start at least. More, he will knowvery well that this place will be searched, that this cheque-book willbe discovered soon enough, and that consequently the bank will bewatched. This is what he will do--what he is doing now, very likely. Hewill knock up the resident manager of that bank and try to get a chequecashed to-night. I don't think that can be done; in which case he willprobably try to make some arrangement to have money sent him. Eitherway, we must be at the Upper Holloway branch of the Eastern ConsolidatedBank as soon as a hansom can get us there."
Thus it was settled, and Hewitt and Plummer went off at once, leavingPlummer's men, with the City police, in charge of the raided premises;leaving some of them also to make inquiries in the neighbourhood. Mr.Victor Peytral had shown himself anxious to accompany Hewitt andPlummer, but had been dissuaded by Hewitt. I guessed that Hewitt fearedthat some hasty indiscretion on the part of this terribly wronged manmight endanger his plans. Peytral, however, seemed tractable enough, andleft immediately after them; he had business, he said, which he expectedwould occupy him for a day or two, and when it was completed he wouldsee us again.
As for myself I only remained long enough to ascertain that the policecould find no trace of the direction of Mayes's flight in the immediateneighbourhood. They had little to aid them. He had gone without a hat,and his dress was in some degree disordered by his struggle with me; butthe latter defect he might easily have remedied in the courts as he ran,and they could gather no tidings of a hatless man. So I took my way tomy office, my wrist growing stiffer and more painful as I went, so thatI was not sorry to arrange for another member of the staff to take myduty for the night, and to get to bed a few hours earlier than usual,after the day's fatigue and excitement.