The superintendent lit a cigar after he had replaced the receiver, and
thoughtfully toasted his slippered feet before the fire. Presently he
rose, turned over the leaves of a time-table, and discovering that
Dalehurst possessed no railway station, discarded it in favour of a
gazetteer. From that he found that the village was four miles from
Deepnook, and the time-table again consulted showed him that he could
reach the latter place in a couple of hours from Waterloo.
Before he went to bed that night he packed the kit-bag that had
accompanied him in most of his wanderings all over the globe. Other
things than clothes found a place in its depths, among them a jemmy,
some putty, and a glazier's diamond. The superintendent had an idea that
they might be more effective than a search warrant.
Yet, as he turned the key, he realised that the energy and the efforts
of both himself and Green might be wasted. There was a possibility that
it was a blind trail--that Grell had contrived the whole thing as a
blind, and had slipped out of the net that had been drawn for the brown
motor-car. The thought induced Foyle to telephone through to
headquarters to order a fresh warning to be wired through to the police
at all the ports. He believed in leaving as little as possible to
chance.
The night staff was still on duty when he reached Scotland Yard the next
morning. The detective-inspector in charge stared at a corpulent man
clad in a Norfolk jacket, knickerbockers of brown tweed, whose heavy
boots clanged along the corridor. The hair, moustache, and eyebrows of
the intruder were a shiny black, and a little trimming with scissors and
a judicious use of a comb and brush had altered the appearance of the
superintendent's face as completely as the clothes had altered his
figure.
He was no believer in stage disguises. False beards and wigs were liable
to go wrong at critical moments. He nodded reassuringly to the inspector
and placed his kit-bag on the floor.
"It's all right, I'm Foyle right enough. I'm thinking of a change of air
for a day or two," was all the explanation he vouchsafed. "I want to
just run through my letters and catch the nine-ten train from Waterloo.
I'll leave a note over for Mr. Mainland, who'll take charge while I'm
away."
He went methodically through the heavy morning's correspondence,
pencilling a few notes here and there on the letters, and sorting them
into baskets ranged on the table as he finished. Precisely at a quarter
to nine he touched a bell, and gave a few brief instructions. Then,
carrying his bag, he descended the flight of steps at the front entrance
and walked briskly along the Embankment. As he crossed the footway of
Hungerford Bridge, a biting wind swept up the river and he shivered,
warmly clad though he was. One of his own men passed without recognising
him, and the superintendent smiled to himself.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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