consequences--of that sort--for one of them. Schmall has--escaped us!"
"Got away!" exclaimed Fullaway. "Great Scott you don't mean that!"

"Schmall committed suicide this afternoon," replied the chief calmly.
"Clever man--in his own line, which was a very bad line. He was searched
most narrowly and carefully, so I've come to the conclusion that he
carried some of his subtle poison in his mouth--the hollow tooth dodge,
no doubt. Anyway, he's dead--they found him dead in his cell. It's a
pity--for he richly deserved hanging. At least, according to Merrifield."

"Ah!" said Fullaway, with a start. "According to Merrifield, eh? Now
what may that mean? To find Merrifield in this at all was, of course, a
regular shock to me!"

"Merrifield--just the type of man who would!--has made a clean breast of
the whole thing," answered the chief. "He made it to me--an hour ago. He
thought it best. He wants--naturally enough--to save his neck."

"Will he?" growled Allerdyke. "A lot of necks ought to crack, after
all this!"

"Can't say--we mustn't prejudge the case," said the chief. "But that's
his desire of course. He would tell me everything--at once. I had it all
taken down. But I remember every scrap of it. You want to hear? Well
there's a good deal of it, but I can epitomize it. You'll find that you
were much to blame, Mr. Fullaway--just as that smart young woman, your
secretary, was candid enough to tell you."

"Oh, I know--I know!" asserted Fullaway. "But--this confession?"

"Very well," responded the chief. "Here it is, then but you must bear in
mind that Merrifield could only tell what he knew--there'll probably be
details to come out later. Anyway, Merrifield--whose chief object is, I
must also remind you, the clearing of himself from any charge of
murder--he doesn't mind the other charge, but he does object to the
graver one!--says that though he's been playing it straight for some
time, ever since he went into Delkin's service, in fact--he'd had
negotiations of a questionable sort with both Schmall and Van Koon
before years ago, in this city and in New York. He renewed his
acquaintance with Schmall when he came over this time with Delkin--met
him accidentally, and got going it with him again--and they both
resumed dealings with Van Koon--who, I may say, was wanted by Chilverton
on a quite different charge. Schmall had set up a business here in the
East End as a small manufacturing chemist--he'd evidently a perfect and
a diabolical genius for chemistry, especially in secret poisons--and
down there Merrifield and Van Koon used to go. Also, there used to go
there the young man Ebers, or Federman--we'll stick to Ebers--who, from
Merrifield's account, seems to have been a tool of Schmall's. Ebers, a
fellow of evident acute perception, used to tell Schmall of things which
his calling as valet at various hotels gave him knowledge--it strikes me
that from what we now know we shall be able to trace to Schmall and
Ebers several robberies at hotels which have puzzled us a good deal. And
there is no doubt that it was Ebers who told Schmall of the two matters
of which he obtained knowledge when he used to frequent your rooms. Mr.
Fullaway--the pearls belonging to Miss Lennard, and the proposed jewel
deal between the Princess Nastirsevitch and Mr. Delkin. But in that last
Merrifield came in. He too, knew of it, and he told Schmall and Van
Koon, but Ebers supplied the detailed information of what you were
doing, through access, as Miss Slade said, to your papers--which you
left lying about, you know."

"I know--I know!" groaned Fullaway. "Careless--careless!"

"Very!" said the chief, with a smile at Allerdyke "Teach you a lesson,
perhaps. However, there this knowledge was. Now, Schmall, according to
Merrifield, was the leading spirit. He had the man Lydenberg in his
employ. He sent him off to Christiania to waylay James Allerdyke: he
supplied him with a photograph of James Allerdyke, which Ebers procured."

"I know that!" muttered Allerdyke. "Clever, too!"

"Exactly," agreed the chief. "Now at the same time Schmall learned of
Miss Lennard's return. He sent Ebers, who already knew and had been
cultivating the French maid, down to Hull to meet her and bring her away
with Miss Lennard's jewel-box. That was done easily. The Lydenberg
affair, however, did not come off--through Lydenberg. Because, as we now
know, James Allerdyke sent the Nastirsevitch jewels off to you, Mr.
Fullaway. But there, fortune favoured these fellows Van Koon, for
purposes of theirs, had taken up his quarters close by you--in your
absence the box came into his hands. And--we know how the ingenious Miss
Slade despoiled him of it!"

The chief paused for a moment, and mechanically shifted the two parcels
which stood before him. He seemed to be reflecting, and when he spoke
again he prefaced his words with a shake of the head.

"Now here, from this point," he continued, "I don't know if Mr.
Merrifield is telling the truth. Probably he isn't. But I confess that,
at present, I don't see how we're going to prove that he isn't. He
strenuously declares that neither he nor Van Koon had anything whatever
to do with the murder of Lisette Beaurepaire, Lydenberg, or Ebers. He
further says that he does not know if Lydenberg poisoned James Allerdyke.
He declares that he does not know if it was ever intended to poison James
Allerdyke, though he confesses that it was intended to rob him at Hull.
Schmall, he says, was the active partner in all this--he took all that
into his own hands. According to Merrifield, he does not know, nor Van
Koon either, if it was Schmall who went down to Hull and shot Lydenberg,
or if Lydenberg was murdered by some person who had a commission for his
destruction from some secret society--Lydenberg, he believed, was mixed
up with that sort of thing."

"I know that, I think!" exclaimed Allerdyke.

"I daresay we all three know what we think," observed the chief. "Schmall
seems to have had a genius for putting his tools out of the way when he
had done with them. It was undoubtedly Schmall who took Lisette
Beaurepaire to that hotel in Paddington and poisoned her; it was just as
undoubtedly Schmall who took Ebers to the hotel in London Docks and got
rid of him. But, I tell you, Merrifield swears that neither he nor Van
Koon knew of these things, and did not connive at them."

"Did they know of them--afterwards?" asked Fullaway.

"Ah!" replied the chief. "That's what they'll have to satisfy a judge and
jury about! I think they'll find it difficult. But--that's about all.
Except this--that they were all three about to clear out when the
enterprising Miss Slade turned up and told Schmall she'd got the
Nastirsevitch jewels. That was a stiff proposition for them. But they
were equal to it. For you see Miss Slade let him know that she was open
to do a deal--for sixty thousand pounds! How were they to get sixty
thousand pounds? Ah!--now came a confession from Merrifield which has
already--for I've told him of it--made Mr. Delkin stare. Delkin, it
appears, keeps a very big banking account here in London--so big, that
his bankers think nothing of his drawing what we should call enormous
cash cheques. Now Merrifield--you see what a clean breast he's
made--admitted to me that he was an expert forger--so he calmly forged a
cheque of Delkin's, drew sixty thousand in notes--and they had them on
them--at least Merrifield had--when we took all three a few hours ago.
Nice people, eh!"

There was a silence of much significance for a few minutes; then
Allerdyke got up from his chair with a growl.

"I'd have given a good deal if that fellow Schmall had saved his neck for
the gallows!" he muttered. "He's cheated me!"

"It's my impression," said the chief, "that if Miss Slade hadn't been so
smart, Schmall would have cheated his two accomplices. He had what he
believed to be the parcel containing the Nastirsevitch jewels in his
possession, and he also had Miss Lennard's pearls locked up in his safe.
We got those this afternoon, on searching his premises; Miss Slade gave
us the real Nastirsevitch jewels from her bank. Here they are--both lots,
in these parcels. And if you two gentlemen will go through the formality
of signing receipts for them, you, Mr. Fullaway, can take her parcel to
the Princess, and you, Mr. Allerdyke, can carry hers to Miss Lennard.
And, er--" he added, with a quiet smile, as he rose and produced some
papers--"you won't mind, either of you, I'm sure, if a couple of my men
accompany you--just to see that you accomplish your respective missions
in safety?"




CHAPTER XXXV

THE ALLERDYKE WAY


With the recovered pearls in his hand, and Chettle as guardian and
companion at his side, Allerdyke chartered a taxi-cab and demanded to be
driven to Bedford Court Mansions. And as they glided away up Whitehall he
turned to the detective with a grin that had a sardonic complexion to it.

"Well--except for the law business--I reckon this is about over,
Chettle," he said. "You've had plenty to do, anyway--not much kicking
your heels in idleness anywhere, while this has been going on!"

Chettle pulled a long face and sighed.

"Unfortunate for me, all the same, Mr. Allerdyke," he answered. "I'd
meant to have a big cut in at that reward, sir. Now I suppose that young
woman'll get it."

"Miss Slade'll doubtless get most of it," replied Allerdyke. "But I think
there'll have to be a bit of a dividing-up, like. You fellows are
certainly entitled to some of it--especially you--and two or three of
those folks who gave some information ought to have a look in. But, of
course, Miss Slade will feel herself entitled to the big lump--and she'll
take care to get it, don't make any mistake!"

"She's a deal too clever, that young lady," observed Chettle. "I like 'em
clever, but not quite as clever as all that. In my opinion, she's
mistaken her calling, has that young woman. She ought to have been one
of us--they're uncommonly bent that way, some of these modern
misses--they can see right through a thing, sometimes, where we men can't
see an inch above our noses."

"Intuition," said Allerdyke, with a laugh. "Aye, well perhaps Miss
Slade'll have got so infected with enthusiasm for your business that
She'll go in for it regularly. This reward'll do for capital, you
know, Chettle."

"Ah!" responded Chettle feelingly. "Wish it was coming to me! I
wouldn't put no capital into that business--not me, sir! I'd have a
nice little farm in the country, and I'd grow roses, and breed sheep
and pigs, and--"

"And lose all your brass in a couple of years!" laughed Allerdyke. "Stick
to your own game, my lad, and when you want to grow roses, do it in your
own back yard for pleasure. And here we are--and you'd best wait,
Chettle, until Miss Lennard herself gives a receipt for this stuff, and
then you can take it back to Scotland Yard and frame it."

He left Chettle in an anti-room of Miss Lennard's flat while he himself
was shown into the prima donna's presence. She was alone, and evidently
unoccupied, and her eyes suddenly sparkled when Allerdyke came in as if
she was glad of a visitor.

"You!" she exclaimed. "Really!"

"It's me," said Allerdyke laconically. "Nobody else," He looked round to
make sure that the door was safely closed; then he advanced to the little
table at which Miss Lennard was sitting and laid down his parcel.

"Something for you," he said abruptly. "Open it."

"What is it?" she asked, glancing shyly at him. "Not chocolates--surely!"

"Never bought aught of that sort in my life," replied Allerdyke. "More
respect for people's teeth. Here--I'll open it," he went on, producing a
penknife and cutting the string. "I've signed one receipt for this stuff
already--you'll have to sign another. There's a detective in your parlour
waiting for it, just now."

"A detective!" she exclaimed. "Why--why--you don't mean to say that box
has my pearls in it? Oh! you don't!"

"See if they're all right," commanded Allerdyke "Gad!--they've been
through some queer hands since you lost 'em. I don't know how you feel
about it, but hang me if I shouldn't feel strange wearing 'em again! I
should feel--but I daresay you don't!"

"No, I don't!" she said as she drew the jewels out of their wrappings and
hurriedly examined them. "Of course I don't; all I feel is that I'm
delighted beyond measure to get them back. You don't understand."

"No, I don't," agreed Allerdyke. He dropped into a chair close by, and
quietly regarded the owner of the fateful valuables. "I'm only a man, you
see. But--I should know better how to take care of things like these than
you did. Come, now!"

"I shall take better care of them--in future," said Miss Lennard.

Allerdyke shook his head,

"Not you!" he retorted. "At least--not unless you've somebody to take
care of you. Eh?"

Miss Lennard, who was still examining her recovered property, set it
hastily down and stared at her visitor. Her colour heightened, and her
eyes became inquisitive.

"Take care of--me!" she exclaimed. "Of--whatever are you talking about,
Mr. Allerdyke?"

"It's like this," replied Allerdyke, involuntarily squaring himself in
his chair. "You see me?--I'm as healthy a man as ever lived!--forty, but
no more than five-and-twenty in health and spirits. I've plenty of brains
and a rare good temper. I'm owner of one of the best businesses in
Yorkshire--I'm worth a good ten thousand a year. I've one of the best
houses in our parts--I'm going to take another, a country house, if
you're minded. I'll guarantee to make the best husband--"

Miss Lennard dropped back on her sofa and screamed.

"Good heavens, man?" she exclaimed. "Are you--are you really asking me
to--to marry you?"

"That's it," replied Allerdyke, nodding. "You've hit it. Queer way,
maybe--but it's my way. See?"

"I never heard of--of such a way in all my life!" said the lady.
"You're--extraordinary!"

"I am," said Allerdyke. "Yes--we are out of the ordinary in our part of
the world--we know it. Well," he went on after a moment's silence, during
which they looked at each other, "you've heard what I have to say. How is
it to be?"

The prima donna continued to gaze intently on this strange wooer for a
full minute. Then she suddenly stretched out her hand.

"I'll marry you!" she said quietly.

Allerdyke gave the hand a firm pressure, and stood up, unconsciously
pulling himself to his full height.

"Thank you," he said. "You shan't regret it. And now, then--a pen, if you
please. Sign that."

He handed his betrothed a paper, watched her sign it, and then, picking
up the pen as she laid it down, took a cheque-book from his pocket and
quickly wrote a cheque. This he placed in an envelope taken from the
writing-table. Envelope and receipt in hand, he turned to the door.

"Business first," he said, smiling over his shoulder. "I'll send Chettle
off--then we'll talk about ourselves."

He went away to Chettle and put the paper and the envelope in his hand.

"That's the receipt," he said. "T'other's a bit of a present for
you--naught to do with the reward--a trifle from me. Ah!--you might like
to know that I've just got engaged to be married!"

Chettle glanced round and inclined his head towards the room from which
Allerdyke had just emerged.

"What!--to the lady!" he exclaimed. "Deary me. Well," he went on,
grasping the successful suitor's hand, and giving it a warm and
sympathetic squeeze, "there's one thing I can say, Mr. Allerdyke--you'll
make an uncommon good-looking pair!"