Criminals -- Fiction; Detective and mystery stories; Great Britain. Metropolitan Police Office -- Fiction; Wills -- Fiction
They ate their dinner in silence, lingering over the coffee. The
Frenchman had taken a table at the other side of the room. Once when
Angel went out he made as though to leave, but seeing that Jimmy did
not move, he changed his mind.
Angel dawdled through the sweet, and took an unconscionable time
over his coffee. Jimmy, fretting to be gone, groaned as his volatile
companion ordered yet another liqueur.
“That’s horribly insidious muck to drink,” grumbled Jimmy.
“Inelegant, but true,” said Angel.
He was amused at the obvious efforts of the spy at the other table to
kill time also. Then suddenly Angel rose, leaving his drink untasted,
and reached for his hat.
“Come along,” he said briskly.
“This is very sudden,” remarked the impatient Jimmy.
They walked to the desk and paid their bill, and out of the corner of
his eye Angel could see the dapper Frenchman following them out.
They stepped out along Shaftesbury Avenue; then Jimmy stopped and
fumbled in his pocket. In his search he turned round, facing the
direction from which he had come. The dapper Frenchman was sauntering
toward him, whilst behind him came two roughly-dressed men. Then
Jimmy saw the two men quicken their pace. Passing one on each side of
Callvet, each took an arm affectionately, and the three turned into
Rupert Street, Angel and Jimmy following.
Jimmy saw the three bunched together, and heard the click of the
handcuffs. Then Angel whistled a passing cab. The captive’s voice rose.
“Stick a handkerchief in his mouth,” said Angel, and one of the men
obeyed. The two stood watching the cab till it turned the corner.
“There is no sense in taking unnecessary risks,” said Angel cheerfully.
“It is one thing being a fool, and another being a silly fool. Now
we’ll go along and see what else happens.”
He explained as he proceeded--
“I’ve wanted Callvet for quite a long time--he’s on the list, so to
speak. I lost sight of him a year ago. How Spedding got him is a
mystery. If the truth be told, he’s got a nodding acquaintance with
half the crooks in London ... had a big criminal practice before he
went into the more lucrative side of the law.”
A big crowd had gathered at the corner of the Haymarket, and with one
accord they avoided it.
“Curiosity,” Angel prattled on, “has been the undoing of many a poor
soul. Keep away from crowds, Jimmy.”
They walked on till they came to Angel’s flat in Jermyn Street.
“Spedding will duplicate and triplicate his schemes for catching us
to-night,” said Jimmy.
“He will,” agreed Angel, and opened the door of the house in which his
rooms were.
The narrow passageway, in which a light usually burned day and night,
was in darkness.
“Oh, no,” said Angel, stepping back into the street, “oh, indeed no!”
During their walk Jimmy had had a suspicion that they had been
followed. This suspicion was confirmed when Angel whistled, and two men
crossed the road and joined them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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