Detective and mystery stories; French, Joseph (Fictitious character) -- Fiction; Police -- Great Britain -- Fiction
At last Cheyne thought he had got the four fixed in his mind. The man
on the rug—the man who had drugged him in the Plymouth hotel—was
Blessington. The man who had introduced himself as Lamson and
afterwards said his name was Price bore neither of these appellations:
his name was Dangle. Susan was “Miss Dangle” and almost certainly
sister to James. Lewisham, the motorman of the _Enid_, was Sime.
Dangle, Sime, and Blessington! Why, there was something sinister in
the very names, and as Cheyne peeped guardedly in beneath the blind,
he felt there was something even more sinister in their owners.
Dangle, with his hard-bitten features and without his veneer of
polish, looked a crafty scoundrel. There was a nasty gleam in his foxy
eyes. He looked a man who would sell his best friend for a shilling.
Perhaps Cheyne’s imagination had by this time run away with him, but
Sime now struck him as a murderous-looking ruffian, and Blessington’s
smug features seemed but to cloak an evil and cruel nature. He was
smiling, but there was nothing mirthful about his smile. Rather was it
the expression that a wolf might be supposed to wear when he sees a
sheep helpless before his attack. Cheyne did not know if Susan was
dangerous, but he had always suspected she could be vindictive and
bad-tempered. A nice crew, he thought, and he shivered in spite of
himself as he pictured his fate were some accident to lead to his
discovery.
And what inventive genius they had shown! They had now told him three
yarns, all convincing, well-thought-out statements, and all entirely
false. There was first of all Blessington’s dissertation of his,
Cheyne’s, literary efforts, told to get him off his guard so that a
drug might be administered to him and his pockets be searched. Then
there was the account of the position indicator for ships, detailed
and plausible, a bait to lure him voluntarily aboard the _Enid_.
Lastly there was the story of the Hull succession, including the
interesting episode of the attempted rescue of the uncle St. John
Price, undoubtedly related with the object of reducing Cheyne’s
scruples in handing over the letter. These people were certainly past
masters in the art of decorative lying, and once again he marveled at
the trouble which had been taken in making each story watertight so as
to assure its success. It was for no small reward that this had been
done.
Cheyne was getting stiff with cold on the ladder. Though keenly
interested in what he saw, he wished his enemies would make some move
so that he might advance or, if necessary, retreat. But they appeared
in no special hurry, proceeding with the photographs in the most
careful and deliberate way.
A desultory conversation was kept up, only part of which he heard, but
nothing further was said which threw any light on the identity of the
conspirators or on the objects for which they were assembled. The work
with the camera progressed, however, and presently three photographs
had been taken.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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