Traced and Tracked; Or, Memoirs of a City DetectiveM'Govan, James
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Traced and Tracked; Or, Memoirs of a City Detective
M'Govan, James
Detective and mystery stories; Edinburgh (Scotland) -- Fiction
Strange fatality! George Fullerton was the name of the man who had
seen him at the races, and so clumsily tried to screen him from
me. The vessel in which he had shipped was gone—it had sailed the
night before—but there was a chance of it stopping at Liverpool.
I telegraphed thither and took the night mail, in case the vessel
should touch, but the weather had proved too stormy, and she held
on her course. Being so far on the way, and now perfectly sure of
my man, I did not dream of turning back, but took passage for New
York in a fast liner, which would easily have outstripped that in
which the fugitive had got the start, but for one or two unforeseen
accidents on the way, which added three days to the length of the
passage. When we landed, the vessel in which “George Fullerton” had
sailed was in the harbour, and my man gone. He was described to me by
one of the sailors as depressed and sullen, but singularly free with
his money. He had been taken on at the last moment in place of a man
who had failed to appear, and so, instead of working his passage, had
received full pay. On landing he had treated several of his mates
liberally, and had seemed bent on nothing but getting rid of his
money.
“I believe I could find him for you,” said the man at last, and I
readily accepted the offer.
We made our way to a tavern near the harbour much frequented by
seamen, and there, sitting alone with some drink before him, I
found the counter-part of the spoilt photograph. I should have
easily recognised him in a crowd, but with a foolhardiness almost
incredible, he wore the fatal red neckerchief, which proved to be of
silk, not cotton.
I said nothing to my conductor beyond ordering for him a drink at the
bar, and then went up and took a seat opposite the red necktie.
“You’re a Scotchman, I think?” I said to him at last.
“So are you,” he said, a little startled.
“Yes. Long since you left the old country?”
“Long enough,” he growled, “and it’ll be longer or I go back.”
“Nonsense, man,” I said, without a smile. “I’m going back by the
first ship. Suppose you go back with me?”
“Never!”
The word was accompanied by a deep oath, but I was busy with my hand
in my pocket, which came out as he made a gulp at the drink before
him, and brought up the barrel of a pistol levelled straight at his
eyes.
“Hands up! Tom Fisher,” I shouted as he staggered back, and the
bystanders came crowding round. “I believe that’s the custom of this
country, or the right thing to say when two are likely to play at one
game. I’ve come all the way from Edinburgh to arrest you for stabbing
Colin M^cCulloch. My name is M^cGovan, and I’ve the warrant in my
pocket.”
He gave in in the most sheepish and stupefied manner imaginable, and
some one was obliging enough to snap my handcuffs on his wrists. I
took him away in a _coupé_, and had him locked up till I should get
the necessary papers filled up for his conveyance across the Atlantic.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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