“They said he was a commercial traveller.”
It was curious that there was no mention of this Georsh as an occupant
of the house; he was not on the list given to Wenk.
Wenk went to the Town Register Office, and with the help of the
officials he ascertained that one occupant of the house had been a
George Hinrichsen from the Elbe district. He had left the place about a
month before, and said he was going to Ravensburg, and after that the
room had been taken by a commercial traveller named Poldringer.
It was quite clear to Wenk that Hinrichsen and Poldringer the traveller
were one and the same person. It was just a month ago that Hull
had had that memorable conversation with Wenk. And Hinrichsen and
Poldringer were the same individual as the murderer of Hull, or at
least the person who directed the murder, and it was his name that the
dancer had called out. Possibly the direction Hinrichsen had taken in
departure also agreed with this, for Constance lay near Ravensburg,
and Switzerland could be reached from there.
Wenk telegraphed to the Constance head-office, with special reference
to the passport stations. A few hours later the police officials there
telegraphed back that a man named Poldringer had notified his arrival
there. He gave Bavaria as his native State, and this had struck the
registering official as curious, because the man used a dialect that
was unmistakably North German. On that account the police kept him
under surveillance. They ascertained that he frequented the society of
people who were suspected of smuggling goods across the Swiss frontier.
He often travelled by the steamer to Lindau. “Expect me to-day in
Constance,” telephoned Wenk finally.
Wenk immediately prepared for a journey. He could reach Constance
before night if the little monoplane belonging to a friend of his,
which was always at his service, were ready for a flight. He telephoned
to him and ascertained that it was.
At four o’clock he departed, and in the deepening twilight he descended
at the Petershaus aerodrome near Constance. The police described the
locality in which these profiteers and smugglers were to be found.
He disguised himself as a chauffeur and went to one of their inns to
get some supper. He addressed one man whom he thought to be of their
party, saying that he could get hold of two cars, and also some sort of
export licence, as long as it wasn’t looked at too closely, but if he
had the help of one or, better still, of two bold fellows it could be
done quite easily. There would be a profit of about ten thousand in
it, for the cars were bought in the autumn of 1918 and had been kept
hidden ever since. They were first-class cars that had belonged to two
generals.
The other did not take long to consider. He would broach the matter
to a friend of his, and the three of them would soon pull it off.
They went together later to another tavern, which the friend often
frequented, but he did not appear.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account