P.-C. Lee: Complete Series (ALL 24 Detective Stories in One Volume). Edgar Wallace

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СКАЧАТЬ Nick Moss was as quick as lighnin’.

      “‘Nick Moss is my name,’ he says, pretending the question was addressed to him, an’ Walker took the cue.

      “‘Moss, of course,’ he says, ‘everybody knows Nick Moss.’

      “Between the two of ’em they were giving each other all the information they desired, an’ I was sorely puzzled to know what to do.

      “I didn’t believe the story, but that was nothing to do with the case. Suppose I arrested the two men. A pretty figure I should cut in court when the man who was supposed to have been burgled stood up in the witness box an’ swore that the burglars were friends of his. An’ mind you, it’s no uncommon thing for a merchant to seek out an ex-burglar to open a safe when the combination word has gone wrong, or the keys have been lost. So I was very reluctantly compelled to take the handcuffs off Nick — it was a fishy business, but it wasn’t my business.

      “As me an’ my mate turned to go, Albert says: ‘One moment, Constable Lee,’ an’ took me aside.

      “‘I hope you won’t report this matter,’ he says, an’ he slipped a banknote into my hand.

      “‘Thank you,’ I says, an’ handed it back again. ‘I’ve done nothing that deserves payment; as to reportin’ the matter, you may be sure I shall report it. If I didn’t my mate would, an’ he’s no more to be squared than I am.’

      “With that I bid him good night an’ left him sitting there, in his dressin’ gown, talking affably an’ friendly to the two lags.

      “When we got outside I looks at Sampson, an’ he looks at me.

      “‘Well,’ says he, ‘they’re a bit peas-in-the-pot.’

      “‘Meanin’ O.T. hot?’ I says. ‘What do you make it?’

      “‘Blessed if I know,’ says Sampson, who’s not what I might call a rapid thinker.

      Anyway, I reported the matter to the Station Inspector, an’ he sent one of our smart young men down to make inquiries, but he learnt no more than I had.

      “Then I had a little private inquiry on my own. I run across Copper an’ put a few questions to him. He was close, of course, an’ backed up the lie to the best of his ability. All I could get out of him was that after I’d left Walker an’ Nick went into a private room an’ had a bit a talk. He didn’t know what they said, for Nick was an oyster in the way of givin’ information.

      “‘So you called at the house by invitation, eh?’ I says.

      “‘Yes,’ says Copper.

      “‘Then,’ I says, ‘what did you mean by sayin’ when I arrested you “This is a laggin’ stakes”?’

      ‘Did I?’ he says uneasily.

      “‘You did,’ I says. ‘Now, Copper, I don’t care what yarn you spin: you an’ Nick went to that house to crack it, an’ nobody was more surprised than you when the owner spoke up for you.’

      “He made no reply.

      “‘One of these days,’ I says. ‘you’ll be sorry you was in this business,’ and with that I left him.

      “Soon after I saw Nick Moss. Got up to the nines, he was, with a brand new suit an’ a diamond ring, an’ his hat on the side of his head. Yaller gloves an’ patent boots an’ a pearl scarf-pin in his necktie.

      “‘What ho, Lee,’ he says insolently. ‘How’s the laggin’ business?’

      “‘About the same as usual, Nick,’ I says; ‘lots of crooks inside the bars, but a dashed sight more walkin’ out in shiny boots an’ dog-poisoner gloves.’

      “‘You be careful,’ he says, ‘or I’ll report you to your superiors.’

      “‘An’ you be careful,’ I says, ‘or I’ll come down on you one of these fine evenin’s when I’m off duty an’ wipe that smile off your dial.’

      “He laughed. ‘Any time you are passin’ my house come in an’ have a glass of beer,’ he says patronisingly.

      “Just as I was goin’ off duty the next night a motor car came dashin’ up to Nottin’ Hill station, an’ out jumped Chief Inspector Toil from the Yard.

      “With him was a foreign looking gentleman, an’ they went into the Inspector’s room, an’ all three was talkin’ together in a low tone when the constable on duty at the door said Atkins and Grant — two plain clothes men — were bringin’ in a prisoner. They carried him in, for he’d collapsed in the last hundred yards, an’ as they laid him on the floor of the charge room I recognised him. It was Nick. I thought at first he was dead, but he was only dead drunk.

      “‘Search him, Lee.’ says the Inspector, an’ I put l hands over him. Besides his jewellery he had nearly twenty pounds in gold an’ notes an’ a print, an’ I couldn’t read it, but the moment Toil saw it he snatched it from my hand.

      “‘A hundred rouble note — and new!’ he cried.

      “‘M’sieur,’ he says to the foreign looking gentleman, ‘what is this?’

      “He hands it to the foreigner, an’ he feels it carefully, then walks with it to the light.

      “‘This is a forgery,’ he says, ‘like the others!’

      “And then it came out that hundreds of thousands of pounds’ worth of forged Russian notes had been put in circulation, an’ that they had been traced to this district.

      “After they had taken Nick Moss away to the cells a light suddenly dawned on me, an’ I went into the Inspector’s room an’ told him all I knew about Albert Walker.

      “‘A printer!’ he says thoughtfully, ‘that theory fits very well. You may be sure if he is the man he’d do his printing at home. A burglar breaks into his house an’ discovers his secret, is bribed to keep silence an’—’

      “‘He jumped up. ‘We haven’t time to lose,’ he says.

      “‘Give me another man, Inspector, an’ the car shall drive us to the house.’

      “But we were too late.

      ‘The house had no tenant when we got there except for an old woman who acted as servant. She told us Nick was a frequent visitor, an’ had called that evenin’ a little the worse for drink.

      “‘She heard Nick threatenin’ Walker, but afterwards they must have parted good friends, for Walker rung for wine glasses.

      “Her master had left a few minutes after Nick an’ that’s the last she saw of him.

      “It was the last anybody else ever saw of him. For though we searched England, we never discovered Mr. Albert Walker. Nick got seven years as an accomplice after an’ Copper got three years for nothin’.

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