"Just Putney. I was to drive my 'ardest. I recollect wantin' to pull up
at the Three Bells, but 'e put 'is 'ead out an' said, 'Go on, driver. I
am awfully late already.' So on I went."
"Where did you stop?"
"I don't know no more than the child unborn. By that time the drink was
yeastin' up in me. The fare kept me on the road 'e wanted by shoutin'.
When we pulled up, 'e carries 'er into a lane. There was a big 'ouse
there. I know that all right. After a bit 'e comes back and tips me a
fiver. With that I whips up the old 'oss and gets back to the Three
Bells. You know the rest, as the girl said when she axed the Bench to--"
"Yes, we know the rest," interrupted Bruce, "but I fear you are not able
to help us much."
"This isn't a five-pun' job, eh, guv'nor?" said Foxey anxiously.
"Hardly at present. We shall see. Can you say exactly where you drew up
your cab when the lady was carried into it?"
"Sure as death," replied the cabman, in the hope that his information
might yet be valuable. "It was outside Raleigh Mansions, Sloane Square."
"We know that--"
"It seems to me, sir, as ye know as much about the business as I do,"
broke in Marsh.
"Were you in the Square or in Sloane Street?"
"In Sloane Street, of course. Right away from the Square."
"Not so very far away, surely."
Foxey was doubtful. His memory was hazy, and he feared lest he should be
mistaken. "No, no," he said quickly, "not far, but still well in the
street."
"Were there many people about?"
"You could 'ardly tell, sir; it was that foggy and nasty. If the lydy
'ad bin dead nobody would 'ave noticed 'er that night."
"Did any one besides yourself see the gentleman carrying the lady into
the cab?"
"I think not. I don't remember anybody passin' at the time."
"Did the gentleman keep your cab waiting long at the kerb before he
brought the lady out?"
"It might 'a' bin a minute or two?"
"No longer?"
"Well, sir, it's 'ard for me to say, especially after bein' away for a
change of 'ealth, so to speak."
"Did not the lady speak or move in any manner?"
"Not so far as I know, sir."
"And do you mean to tell me that, although you had been drinking, you
were not astonished at the whole business?"
"I never axes my fares any questions 'cept when they says 'By the hour.'
Then I wants to know a bit."
"Yes; but this carrying of a lady out of a house in such fashion--did
not this strike you as strange?"
"Strange, bless your 'eart, sir. You ought to see me cartin' 'em off
from the Daffodil Club after a big night--three and four in one keb, all
blind, paralytic."
"No doubt; but this was not the Daffodil Club at daybreak. It was a
respectable neighborhood at seven o'clock, or thereabouts, on a winter's
evening."
"It ain't my fault," said Foxey doggedly. "Wot was wrong with the lydy?
Was it a habduction?"
"The lady was dead--murdered, we believe."
The cabman's face grew livid with anxiety.
"Oh, crikey, Mr. White," he cried, addressing the detective, "I knew
nothink about it."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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