The Golden Scorpion Page 20

  CHAPTER V

  CONCLUSION OF STATEMENT

  I come now to the conclusion of this statement and to the strangeoccurrence which led to my proclaiming myself. The fear of imminentassassination which first had prompted me to record what I knew of"The Scorpion" had left me since I had ceased to be Charles Malet. Andthat the disappearance of "Le Balafre" had been accepted by hisunknown chief as evidence of his success in removing _me_, I did notdoubt. Therefore I breathed more freely ... and more freely still whenmy body was recovered!

  Yes, my body was recovered from Hanover Hole; I read of it--a veryshort paragraph, but it is the short paragraphs that matter--in mymorning paper. I knew then that I should very shortly be dead indeed--officially dead. I had counted on this happening before, youunderstand, for I more than ever suspected that "The Scorpion" knew meto be in England and I feared that he would "lie low" as the Englishsay. However, since a fortunate thing happens better late than never,I say in this paragraph two things: (1) that the enemy would cease tocount upon Gaston Max; (2) that the Scotland Yard Commissioner wouldbe authorised to open Part First of this Statement which had beenlodged at his office two days after I landed in England--the portiondealing with my inquiries in Paris and with my tracking of "LeBalafre" to Bow Road Station and observing that he showed a goldenscorpion to the chauffeur of the yellow car.

  This would happen because Paris would wire that the identificationdisk found on the dead man was that of Gaston Max. Why would Paris doso? Because my reports had been discounted since I had ceased to beCharles Malet and Paris would be seeking evidence of my whereabouts.My reports had discontinued because I had learned that I had to dowith a criminal organization of whose ramifications I knew nothing.Therefore I took no more chances. I died.

  I return to the night when Inspector Dunbar, the grim Dunbar ofScotland Yard, came to Dr. Stuart's house. His appearance therepuzzled me. I could not fail to recognize him, for as dusk had fullycome I had descended from my top window and was posted among thebushes of the empty house from whence I commanded a perfect view ofthe doctor's door. The night was unusually chilly--there had been somerain--and when I crept around to the lane bordering the lawn, hopingto see or hear something of what was taking place in the study, Ifound that the windows were closed and the blinds drawn.

  Luck seemed to have turned against me; for that night, at dusk, when Ihad gone to a local garage where I kept my motor bicycle, I haddiscovered the back tire to be perfectly flat and had been forced tocontain my soul in patience whilst the man repaired a serious puncture.The result was of course that for more than half an hour I had not hadDr. Stuart's house under observation. And a hundred and one thingscan happen in half an hour.

  Had Dr. Stuart sent for the Inspector? If so, I feared that theenvelope was missing, or at any rate that he had detected Zarael-Khala in the act of stealing it and had determined to place thematter in the hands of the police. It was a maddening reflection.Again--I shrewdly suspected that I was not the only watcher of Dr.Stuart's house. The frequency with which the big yellow car drew upat the door a few moments after the doctor had gone out could not bedue to accident. Yet I had been unable to detect the presence of thisother watcher, nor had I any idea of the spot where the car remainedhidden--if my theory was a correct one. Nevertheless I did not expectto see it come along whilst the Inspector remained at the house--always supposing that Zara el-Khala had not yet succeeded. Iwheeled out the "Indian" and rode to a certain tobacconist's shop atwhich I had sometimes purchased cigarettes.

  He had a telephone in a room at the rear which customers were allowedto use on payment of a fee, and a public call-box would not serve mypurpose, since the operator usually announces to a subscriber the factthat a call emanated from such an office. The shop was closed, but Irang the bell at the side door and obtained permission to use thetelephone upon pleading urgency. I had assiduously cultivated a naturalgift for mimicry, having found it of inestimable service in thepractice of my profession. It served me now. I had worked in the pastwith Inspector Dunbar and his subordinate Sergeant Sowerby, and Idetermined to trust to my memory of the latter's mode of speech.

  I rang up Dr. Stuart and asked for the Inspector, saying SergeantSowerby spoke from Scotland Yard. "Hullo!" he cried, "is that you,Sowerby?"

  "Yes," I replied in Sowerby's voice. "I thought I should find youthere. About the body of Max.."

  "Eh!" said Dunbar--"what's that? Max?"

  I knew immediately that Paris had not yet wired, therefore I told himthat Paris _had_ done so, and that the disk numbered 49685 was that ofGaston Max. He was inexpressibly shocked, deploring the rashness ofMax in working alone.

  "Come to Scotland Yard," I said, anxious to get him away from the house.

  He said he would be with me in a few minutes, and I was racking mybrains for some means of learning what business had taken him to Dr.Stuart when he gave me the desired information spontaneously.

  "Sowerby, listen," said he: "It's 'The Scorpion' case right enough!That bit of gold found on the dead man is not a cactus stem; it's ascorpion's tail!"

  So! they had found what I had failed to find! It must have beenattached, I concluded, to some inner part of "Le Balafre's" clothing.There had been no mention of Zara el-Khala; therefore, as I rodeback to my post I permitted myself to assume that she would comeagain, since presumably she had thus far failed. I was right.

  _Morbleu!_ quick as I was the car was there before me! But I had notoverlooked this possibility and I had dismounted at a good distancefrom the house and had left the "Indian" in someone's front garden.As I had turned out of the main road I had seen Dr. Stuart andInspector Dunbar approaching a rank upon which two or three cabsusually stood.

  I watched _la Bell_ Zara enter the house, a beautiful woman mostelegantly attired, and then, even before Chunda Lal had backed thecar into the lane I was off ... to the spot at which I had abandonedmy motor bicycle. In little more than half an hour I had traversedLondon, and was standing in the shadow of that high, blank wall towhich I have referred as facing a row of wooden houses in a certainstreet adjoining Limehouse Causeway.

  You perceive my plan? I was practically sure of the street; all I hadto learn was which house sheltered "The Scorpion"!

  I had already suspected that this night was to be for me an unluckynight. _Nom d'un p'tit bon-homme!_ it was so. Until an hour before dawnI crouched under that wall and saw no living thing except a very oldChinaman who came out of one of the houses and walked slowly away.The other houses appeared to be empty. No vehicle of any kind passedthat way all night.

  Turning over in my mind the details of this most perplexing case, itbecame evident to me that the advantages of working alone were nowoutweighed by the disadvantages. The affair had reached a stage atwhich ordinary police methods should be put into operation. I hadcollected some of the threads; the next thing was for Scotland Yardto weave these together whilst I sought for more.

  I determined to remain dead. It would afford me greater freedom ofaction. The disappearance of "Le Balafre" which must by this time havebeen noted by his associates, might possibly lead to a suspicion that thedead man was _not_ Gaston Max; but providing no member of "The Scorpion"group obtained access to the body I failed to see how this suspicioncould be confirmed. I reviewed my position.

  The sealed letter had achieved its purpose in part. Although I hadfailed to locate the house from which these people operated, I could drawa circle on the map within which I knew it to be; and I had learned thatZara el-Khala and the Hindu were in London. What it all meant--to whatend "The Scorpion" was working I did not know. But having learned somuch, be sure I did not despair of learning more.

  It was now imperative that I should find out exactly what had occurredat Dr. Stuart's house. Accordingly I determined to call upon theInspector at Scotland Yard. I presented myself towards evening of theday following my vigil in Limehouse, sending up the card of a Bureauconfrere, for I did not intend to let it be generally known that I wasalive.

 
Presently I was shown up to that bare and shining room which Iremembered having visited in the past. I stood just within the doorway,smiling. Inspector Dunbar rose, as the constable went out, and stoodlooking across at me.

  I had counted on striking him dumb with astonishment. He was Scottishlyunmoved.

  "Well," he said, coming forward with outstretched hand, "I'm glad tosee you. I knew you would have come to us sooner or later!"

  I felt that my eyes sparkled. There was no resentment within my heart.I rejoiced.

  "Look," he continued, taking a slip of paper from his note-book. "Thisis a copy of a note I left with Dr. Stuart some time ago. Read it."

  I did so, and this is what I read:

  "_A:_ the name of the man who cut out the lid of the cardboard box andsealed it in the envelope--Gaston Max!

  "_B:_ the name of the missing cabman--Gaston Max!

  "_C:_ the name of the man who rang me up at Dr. Stuart's and told methat Gaston Max was dead--Gaston Max!"

  I returned the slip to Inspector Dunbar. I bowed.

  "It is a pleasure and a privilege to work with you, Inspector," Isaid ....

  This statement is nearly concluded. The whole of the evening I spentin the room of the Assistant Commissioner discussing the mattersherein set forth and comparing notes with Inspector Dunbar. Oneimportant thing I learned: that I had abandoned my nightly watchestoo early. For one morning just before dawn someone who was _not_Zara had paid a visit to the house of Dr. Stuart! I determined tocall upon the doctor.

  As it chanced I was delayed and did not actually arrive until so latean hour that I had almost decided not to present myself ... when a bigyellow car flashed past the taxicab in which I was driving!

  _Nom d'un nom!_ I could not mistake it! This was within a few hundredyards of the house of Dr. Stuart, you understand, and I instantlydismissed my cabman and proceeded to advance cautiously on foot. Icould no longer hear the engine of the car which had passed ahead ofme, but then I knew that it could run almost noiselessly. As I creptalong in that friendly shadow cast by a high hedge which had servedme so well before, I saw the yellow car. It was standing on theopposite side of the road. I reached the tradesman's entrance.

  From my left, in the direction of the back lawn of the house, came asudden singular crackling noise and I discerned a flash of blue flameresembling faint "summer lightning." A series of muffled explosionsfollowed ... and in the darkness I tripped over something which layalong the ground at my feet--a length of cable it seemed to be.

  Stumbling, I uttered a slight exclamation ... and instantly receiveda blow on the head that knocked me flat upon the ground! Everythingwas swimming around me, but I realized that someone--Chunda Lalprobably--had been hiding in the very passage which I had entered!I heard again that uncanny wailing, close beside me.

  Vaguely I discerned an incredible figure--like that of a tall cowledmonk, towering over me. I struggled to retain consciousness--there wasa rush of feet ... the throb of a motor. It stimulated me--that sound!I must get to the telephone and cause the yellow car to be intercepted.

  I staggered to my feet and groped my way along the hedge to where Ihad observed a tree by means of which one might climb over. I wasdizzy as a drunken man; but I half climbed and half fell on to thelawn. The windows were open. I rushed into the study of Dr. Stuart.

  Pah! it was full of fumes. I looked around me. _Mon Dieu!_ I staggered.For I knew that in this fume-laden room a thing more horrible and morestrange than any within my experience had taken place that night.

  Part III