Detective and mystery stories, English; Private investigators -- Fiction
We got rid of our collars and made chokers of our ties. We turned our
coat-collars up at one side only, and then, with dented hats worn
raffishly, and our hands in our pockets, we looked disreputable enough
for all practical purposes in twilight. A cordon of plain-clothes police
had already been forming round the club, we were told, and so we sallied
forth. We turned into Windmill Street, crossed Whitfield Street, and in
a turning or two we came to the Bakunin Club. I could see no sign of
anything like a ring of policemen, and said so. Hewitt chuckled. "Of
course not," he said; "they don't go about a job of this sort with drums
beating and flags flying. But they are all there, and some are watching
us. There is the house. I'll negotiate."
The house was one of the very shabby _passé_ sort that abound in that
quarter. The very narrow area was railed over, and almost choked with
rubbish. Visible above it were three floors, the lowest indicated by the
door and one window, and the other two by two windows each--mean and
dirty all. A faint light appeared in the top floor, and another from
somewhere behind the refuse-heaped area. Everywhere else was in
darkness. Hewitt looked intently into the area, but it was impossible to
discern anything behind the sole grimy patch of window that was visible.
Then we stepped lightly up the three or four steps to the door and rang
the bell.
We could hear slippered feet mounting a stair and approaching. A latch
was shifted, a door opened six inches, an indistinct face appeared, and
a female voice asked, "_Qui est là?_"
"_Deux camarades_," Hewitt grunted testily. "_Ouvrez vite._"
I had noticed that the door was kept from opening further by a short
chain. This chain the woman unhooked from the door, but still kept the
latter merely ajar, as though intending to assure herself still
further. But Hewitt immediately pushed the door back, planted his foot
against it, and entered, asking carelessly as he did so, "_Où se trouve
Luigi?_"
I followed on his heels, and in the dark could just distinguish that
Hewitt pushed the woman instantly against the wall and clapped his hand
to her mouth. At the same moment a file of quiet men were suddenly
visible ascending the steps at my heels. They were the police.
The door was closed behind us almost noiselessly, and a match was
struck. Two men stood at the bottom of the stairs, and the others
searched the house. Only two men were found--both in a top room. They
were secured and brought down.
The woman was now ungagged, and she used her tongue at a great rate. One
of the men was a small, meek-looking slip of a fellow, and he appeared
to be the woman's husband. "Eh, messieurs le police," she exclaimed
vehemently, "it ees not of 'im, mon pauvre Pierre, zat you sall rrun in.
'Im and me--we are not of the clob--we work only--we housekeep."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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