The Middle of ThingsFletcher, J. S. (Joseph Smith)
General
The Middle of Things
Fletcher, J. S. (Joseph Smith)
Detective and mystery stories
There was no need for Millwaters to promise faithful compliance;
Portlethwaite knew well enough that to put him on a trail was equivalent
to putting a hound on the scent of a fox or a terrier to the run of a
rat. And that evening, Millwaters, who had clever ways of his own, made
himself well acquainted with the so-called Mr. Cave's appearance, and
assured himself that his man had gone peacefully to rest at his hotel,
and he had seen him again before breakfast next morning and had been in
quiet and unobtrusive attendance upon him when, later, he visited
Methley's office and subsequently walked away with Methley to the
police-court. And Millwaters was in the police-court, meditatively sucking
peppermint lozenges in a corner, when Mr. Cave was unexpectedly asked to
give evidence; he was there, too, until Mr. Cave left the court.
Cave's remarkable story ran off Millwaters' mentality like raindrops off
a steep roof. It mattered nothing to him. He did not care the value of a
brass button if Cave was Earl of Ellingham or Duke of Ditchmoor; his job
was to keep his eye on him, whoever he was. And so when Viner and his
party went round to Markendale Square, Millwaters slunk along in their
rear, and at a corner of the Square he remained, lounging about, until
his quarry reappeared. Two or three of the other men came out with Cave,
but Millwaters noticed that Cave immediately separated from them. He was
evidently impressing upon them that he was in a great hurry about
something or other, and sped away from them, Millwaters's cold eye upon
him. And within a minute Millwaters had observed what seemed to him
highly suspicious circumstance--Cave, on leaving the others, had shot off
down a side-street in the direction of Lancaster Gate, but as soon as he
was out of sight of Markendale Square, had doubled in his tracks, hurried
down another turning and sped away as fast as he could walk towards
Paddington Station.
Millwaters, shorter in the leg than the tall man in front, had to hurry
to keep him in sight, but he was never far behind as Cave hastened along
Craven Road and made for the terminus. Once or twice in this chase the
quarry lifted a hand to an approaching taxicab, only to find each was
engaged; it was not until he and his pursuer were in front of the Great
Western Hotel that Cave found an empty cab, hailed it, and sprang in.
Millwaters grinned quietly at that; he was used to this sort of chase,
and he had memorized car and number before Cave had been driven off. It
was a mere detail to charter the next, and to give a quiet word and wink
to its chauffeur, who was opening its door for Millwaters when a third
person came gently alongside and tapped the clerk's shoulder. Millwaters
turned sharply and encountered Mr. Perkwite's shrewd eyes.
"All right, Millwaters!" said the barrister. "I know what you're after!
I'm after the same bird. We'll go together."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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