Detective and mystery stories, English; Police -- Fiction; Short stories
The precise dress described by the fishmonger's errand-boy! We next
proceeded to the Bank of England, to ascertain if any of the stolen
notes had been presented for payment. I handed in a list of the numbers
furnished by Mr. Bagshawe, and was politely informed that they had all
been cashed early the day before by a gentleman in a sort of undress
uniform, and wearing a foraging cap. Lieutenant James was the name
indorsed upon them; and the address Harley Street, Cavendish Square, was
of course a fictitious one. The cashier doubted if he should be able to
swear to the person of the gentleman who changed the notes, but he had
particularly noticed his dress. I returned to Scotland Yard to report
_no_ progress; and it was then determined to issue bills descriptive of
Bristowe's person, and offering a considerable reward for his
apprehension, or such information as might lead to it; but the order had
scarcely been issued, when who should we see walking deliberately down
the yard towards the police-office but Mr. Robert Bristowe himself,
dressed precisely as before described! I had just time to caution the
inspector not to betray any suspicion, but to hear his story, and let
him quietly depart, and to slip with Josiah Barnes out of sight, when he
entered, and made a formal but most confused complaint of having been
robbed something more than a week previously--where or by whom he knew
not--and afterwards deceived, bamboozled, and led astray in his pursuit
of the robbers, by a person whom he now suspected to be a confederate
with them. Even of this latter personage he could afford no tangible
information; and the inspector, having quietly listened to his
statement--intended, doubtless, as a mystification--told him the police
should make inquiries, and wished him good-morning. As soon as he had
turned out of Scotland Yard by the street leading to the Strand, I was
upon his track. He walked slowly on, but without pausing, till he
reached the Saracen's Head, Snow-Hill, where, to my great astonishment,
he booked himself for Westmoreland by the night-coach. He then walked
into the inn, and seating himself in the coffee-room, called for a pint
of sherry wine and some biscuits. He was now safe for a short period at
any rate; and I was about to take a turn in the street, just to meditate
upon the most advisable course of action, when I espied three
buckishly-attired, bold-faced looking fellows--one of whom I thought I
recognised, spite of his fine dress--enter the booking-office. Naturally
anxious in my vocation, I approached as closely to the door as I could
without being observed, and heard one of them--my acquaintance sure
enough; I could not be deceived in that voice--ask the clerk if there
were any vacant places in the night-coach to Westmoreland. To
Westmoreland! Why, what in the name of Mercury could a detachment of the
swell-mob be wanting in that country of furze and frieze-coats? The next
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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