CHAPTER IV
I AM DETAINED
I was the "'im" referred to evidently.
Our inspector buttoned up his blue overcoat.
"Perhaps you'll be kind enough to walk down with us to the station, Mr.. . . er--Anstruther," he said; "we can have a little talk down thereand straighten things out a bit."
His subterfuge did not in the least deceive me.
"Do I understand," I asked, "that you propose to detain me?"
The inspector raised his shoulders perplexedly, and his brother smileda fat smile over his shoulder.
"That'll depend how you explain matters to our chief," he saiddeprecatingly; "at any rate we'd better get along."
This was a hint I could not disregard. He led the way up thestaircase, and his stout brother, through force of habit, closed inbehind, far too close to be pleasant, owing to the diffused aroma of amixture of various brands of inferior whisky, arising from his hardbreathing as he ascended the stairs. We walked two and two downMonmouth Street, I with the inspector, the doctor and the Londondetective improving their acquaintance in the rear.
Two streets off we dropped the officer of the Z Division, who betookhimself once more to the "Compasses" to continue his "fifty up" withhis friend the landlord, and the doctor joined us. I had the pleasureof listening to his conversation with the inspector, conducted acrossme, without having the pleasure of being included in it.
We walked all three down into the town, and then straight into thePolice Station, only a few doors off my hotel.
The inspector and the doctor went into a private room to confer withsome superior official while I was left to sit by the fire in the outeroffice.
Presently the inspector came out.
"We've decided to detain you, Mr. Anstruther," he said, "until we canfind out a little more about this affair. Just come over here."
"Look here, Mr. Inspector," I said, "if you intend to detain me withoutsufficient reason, you'll find it an awkward matter." The inspectorlooked a trifle uncomfortable.
"We shall have to take our chance of that," he said, rather sullenly,"we've only got our duty to do, Mr. Anstruther. You can have bail, Ishould think."
"Bail!" I repeated, "how am I to get bail? I don't know a soul in thetown."
The inspector shrugged his shoulders and motioned me into a railedspace in the centre of the office.
There was no help for it, so I went and placed myself as he desired inthe little dock, and a constable standing there obligingly clamped downa rail behind me to keep me there. Then the doctor, who, it turnedout, was some official in the town, gave a garbled version of the wholeaffair, which I found it useless to try and contradict, as I was toldto hold my tongue. The inspector's version of the affair was even moreinsulting than the doctor's. He did not hesitate to express hisopinion that I was a very suspicious person, probably a lunatic atlarge. When asked if I had anything to say, my remark summed up thesituation, tersely, in a few words.
"This is a parcel of d--d rot!" I said.
Then they searched me.
The inspector simply gloated over Saumarez' revolver when I turned itout of my pocket, and this feeling rose to an absolute thrill oftriumph when he discovered that one of the chambers had been discharged.
In my heart, I was thankful that I had sent those two packets and thekey to my lawyers.
While the inspector was hanging fondly over Saumarez' glass eye, whichone energetic young constable had furraged out of the corner of mywaistcoat pocket, an idea struck me which ought to have occurred to mebefore.
I had come to Bath with a letter of introduction to a certain doctor, aDr. Mainwaring; I would send for him.
"Look here, Mr. Inspector," I said, "when you've quite finishedrattling me about, I have two suggestions to make. One is to send someof your men to try if they can find the old lady whose throat has beencut, and the other is to send for Dr. Mainwaring, who knows me. I warnyou that if you lock me up you will get into trouble."
At the mention of Dr. Mainwaring, Dr. Redfern, who was still there,pricked up his ears.
"Dr. Mainwaring!" he repeated. "Do you know him?"
"I came here about ten days ago," I answered, "with a letter ofintroduction to him from Sir Belgrave Walpole. I've no doubt that hewill be able to tell you something about me."
He turned to the inspector.
"Don't you think you had better send a man up to Royal Crescent," hesaid, "to ask Dr. Mainwaring? There _may_ be a mistake, you know. Itwould be safer."
I could see that the inspector was very unwilling to admit thepossibility of a mistake; he was, however, overruled by the man who waswriting in the book, and who appeared to be a person in authority.
"Shapland," he said to a waiting constable, "go up to Dr. Mainwaring'sand ask if he knows a person of the name of Anstruther."
"You'd better take one of my cards there with you," I suggested, "thenhe'll know who you mean."
The inspector gave me a scathing look, but gave the man one of thecards out of my case.
I think they were undecided then as to whether they would lock me up ornot, but eventually made up their minds on the side of prudence.
I was allowed to sit by the fire.
Within half an hour a motor came puffing up to the police station, andDr. Mainwaring entered.
"My dear Mr. Anstruther," he inquired breathlessly, "whatever is thematter?"
In a few brief sentences I unloaded the burden of my wrongs.
"Why, there must be some mistake!" cried Mainwaring. "I'll just go offand see the chief constable, he's a particular friend of mine."
When he had gone, the faces of my guardians grew visibly longer; one ofthem fetched me an armchair out of the office.
The chief constable soon put matters right.
"This gentleman is staying at the Magnifique," he announced, "he iswell known to Dr. Mainwaring, and, in fact, the doctor will answer forhis appearance; what more do you want, Mr. Inspector?"
The inspector wanted nothing more.
Within five minutes I was sitting by a glorious fire in a private roomat the Magnifique, discussing the whole matter with the chief constableand Dr. Mainwaring.
But before I left the station, I put a query to Inspector Bull, junior.
"What have you done about the old lady?" I asked.
The officer assumed some shreds of dignity, even in his discomfiture.
"You may have thought us a bit forgetful, sir," he observed, "but Iassure you, both the railway stations have been under carefulobservation from the time of my being able to touch a telephone."
"Thank you," I said; but it appeared to me that under the circumstancesthey might just as profitably have watched the Pump Room or the Baths.