CHAPTER XXHOW JAMES MULLEN AND MYSELF ALMOST MET
The Professor was in such huge good humour at the success of his ruse that when we returned together to the hair-cutting establishment he was almost inclined to be genial, especially as I took the joke in good part, and frankly admitted that I had never been so “let through” before. So friendly was he, in fact that he readily agreed to my proposal that I should go over the way and bring back a bottle of something to ease his cough; and after I had pledged “Downy Tom,” and expressed the intention of getting up a little earlier in the morning the next time I meant trying to steal a march upon him, and “Downy Tom” had pledged me in what—in delicate allusion to recent events—he humorously termed pigeon’s milk, but which was in reality the best Old Tom, we fell to discussing events almost confidentially.
“So itisJeanes as yer after—as I always suspected, though you never harsked questions about him direct, but only as if by haccident and among the others” he said, as he lit his pipe. “It ’ud have saved a lot of trouble if yer’d told me so at fust.”
“What do you mean by ‘saved trouble’?” I asked.
“Why, if I’d ’ave knowed it was Jeanes for certain, I’d ’ave ’elped yer—for a consideration, of course. I only took yer into the shop because I meant to find out who yerwashafter. Jeanes ain’t nothink to me; but there is some of my pals as I wouldn’t have no ’arm come to, not for a pot o’ money. And I knew if I ’ad yer there I could find out who it was yer wanted, and give ’im the tip if it was a pal. Why, I’ve been a-playin’ with yer all this time—a-playing hoff first one name and then another to see if it was your bloke. Then when I began to suspect itwasJeanes, I planned the little game I played yer ter-day—an’didn’tyer tumble prettily! Ha, ha, ha, ha!” and off the Professor went again into a paroxysm of laughter at my expense.
It suited my purpose to humour him, so Ijoined good-humouredly in the laugh against myself; but as a matter of fact I had not been quite such a “pigeon” as the Professor supposed. Up to a certain point the scoring had been in my favour, and not in his, for I had succeeded, not only in intercepting an important letter which had been sent to his care, but also in returning that letter—after I had made myself acquainted with its contents—to the place whence I took it, so that it might reach the hand of the person to whom it was addressed.
But I knew very well that, should the Professor’s suspicions be once aroused—as must have been the case after he detected me in the act of examining the letters—I should not only never again be allowed to go within the reach of the rack where he kept them, but should in all probability be refused admission to his shop. Hence I had no choice but to adopt the somewhat daring course of openly offering him a bribe to take me into his service. If he really were Mullen’s confederate he would already have had cause to suspect my motives, but if, on the other hand, Mullen and the Professor had no other connection than that the former was having his letters addressed to the latter’s shop, itwas quite within the bounds of possibility that the worthy Professor would, for a consideration, be prepared to tell me all he knew about the customer in question. That the object of the leading questions he had from time to time put to me was to discover whom I was in search of, I had been well aware, although I freely admit that I had been, as I have said, “let through” in regard to the man who had called for Jeanes’s letter.
When the Professor had had his laugh out I asked him quietly if he knew that the letter for Jeanes was gone.
“Do I know it’s gone, yer bally fool?” he said. “Why, of course I do. Wasn’t it me came and called yer for it just now when I had such a bad korf; and didn’t yer say there wasn’t any letter?”
“Yes, yes,” I said, looking rather foolish; “of course I know that you came and asked for a letter, and that I told you there wasn’t one, but I didn’t know that you knew that the letter was really gone.”
“Well, considerin’ as it was me took it when I came back to get my pipe, I ought ter know,” he answered, and then, with a sudden change ofmanner, “Look ’ere, Watson, or whatever yer name is, I think us two can do a deal together. Yer want to get ’old of ’Enery Jeanes, don’t yer?”
I nodded.
“Supposin’ I knew where ’e was to be found at this very minute, wot ’ud yer give me for the hinformation?”
“Ten pounds,” I answered.
He snorted.
“Can’t be done under twenty, ready money. Give us yer twenty and I’ll tell yer.”
“No,” I said. “Take me to where Jeanes is to be found, wherever it is, and I’ll give you, not twenty, but fifty pounds, as soon as I’m sure it is the right man. I swear it, so help me God! and I won’t go back on my word.”
His eyes sparkled.
“Yer a gentleman, I b’lieve,” he said, “and I’ll trust yer. But yer must keep my name out of it. Now listen. When I went down the stairs to get that ’arf-pint I met Jeanes a-comin’ up for ’is letters. I guessed it was ’im yer was after, and I wasn’t going to ’ave no harrests nor rows in my shop. Besides, if yer wanted ’im bad, I guessed yer’d be willin’ to drop moneyon it and if there was any money to be dropped I didn’t see why I shouldn’t be the one to pick it up.”
Here was news, indeed! If the Professor was to be believed—and, notwithstanding my recent experience, I failed to see what motive he could have for misleading me in this instance—the man I was in search of had been in the town, and in that very house, scarcely more than two hours ago! And I had been sitting there idly, when every moment, every second, was precious!
“Go on! go on!” I said excitedly. “Tell me the rest as fast as you can. There’s not a moment to spare. I’ll see you don’t lose by it.”
He nodded and continued, but still in the same leisurely way.
“Well, I harsked Jeanes to wait while I fetched the letter. That’s wot I came back to get my pipe for. Yer remember I took the letters down and pretended to count ’em? Well, I sneaked it then and gave it ’im. He gave me a sovereign, and said there wouldn’t be any more letters comin’ for ’im, and ’e shouldn’t be calling at the shop no more. Then ’e harskedme wot time the next train left for London, and I told ’im in a quarter of an hour, and ’e said that wouldn’t do, as ’e ’adn’t ’ad no lunch and was starvin’ ’ungry. So I told ’im there wasn’t another for two hours and a ’arf, and ’e said that would do capital, and where was the best place to get dinner. I told ’im the Railway Hotel, and ’e went there, ’cos I followed him to make sure. Then I whipped back and played that little game on yer just to make sure itwasJeanes yer wanted. And now I guess that fifty pounds is as good as mine. Jeanes’ll be at the hotel now, or if ’e’s left there we can make sure of ’im at the station when ’e catches the London express. Wot d’ yer want him for? Looks a ’armless, pleasant kind of bloke, and very pleasant spoken.”
“What’s he like?” I said.
“Youngish, fair, and big eyes like a gal’s. Wore a blue serge suit and a white straw ’at.”
“Clean shaven?” I asked.
“Yes, clean shaved; or any’ow, ’e’d no ’air on ’is face.”
“That’s the man,” I said. “Well, come along, we’ll be off to the hotel. Do you know any one there,by-the-bye?”
“I knows the chief waiter. ’E often ’as five bob on a ’orse with me.”
“All right. Then you’d better go in first and see your friend the waiter and find out where Jeanes is. If he heard anybody asking for him by name in the hall he might think something was wrong and make a bolt. Then you’d lose your fifty pounds—which would be a pity.”
The Professor assented, and we started for the Railway Hotel, he walking in front as if without any connection with me, and I some twenty paces behind. When the swing doors closed upon his bulky figure I stopped, as we had arranged, and pretended to look into a shop window until he should rejoin me.
I had been nervous and excited when we set out, but now that the crisis had come, and I was so soon to stand face to face with Henry JeanesaliasJames Cross,aliasJames Mullen,aliasCaptain Shannon, I was as cool and collected as ever I was in my life.
The next moment the Professor came hurrying out, with a face on which dismay was plainly written.
“’E’s been there, right enough,” he said, all ina burst, and with a horrible oath, his features working meanwhile with agitation, the genuineness of which there was no mistaking. “But instead of ’aving lunch, as ’e told me ’e should, the —— ’ad a glass of sherry and caught the 12.15 express to London, and ’e’s more than got there by now, rot ’im!”