The Complete Detective Sgt. Elk Series (6 Novels in One Edition). Edgar Wallace

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СКАЧАТЬ to pick them up.”

      T.B. nodded.

      “I’ll use your telephone,” he said, and stooped over the desk. He called for a number and after an interval —

      “Yes — that you, Mainland? Go to 375 St. John Street, and take into custody Gregory Silinski on a charge of murder. Take with you fifty men and surround the place. Detain every caller, and every person you find in the house.”

      He hung up the receiver.

      “Now, my friend,” he said in French, “what shall we do with you?”

      The Frenchman shrugged his shoulders listlessly.

      “What does it matter?” he said, “they will have me — it is only a matter of hours.”

      “I take a brighter view,” said T.B. cheerily; “you shall walk with us to Scotland Yard and there you shall be taken care of.”

      But the Frenchman shrunk back.

      “Come, there is no danger,” smiled T.B.

      Eeluctantly the engineer accompanied the detective and the editor from the building. A yellow fog lay like a damp cloth over London, and the Thames Embankment was almost deserted.

      “Do you think he followed you here?” asked T.B.

      “I am sure.” The Frenchman looked from left to right in an agony of apprehension. “He killed Hyatt and he killed Moss — of that I am certain — and now—”

      A motorcar loomed suddenly through the fog, coming from the direction of Northumberland Avenue, and overtook them. A man leaned out of the window as the car swept abreast. His face was masked and his actions were deliberate.

      “Look out!” cried the editor, and clutched the Frenchman’s arm.

      The pistol that was levelled from the window of the car cracked twice and T.B. felt the wind of the bullets as they passed his head.

      Then the car disappeared into the mist, leaving behind three men, one half-fainting with terror, one immensely pleased with the novel sensation — our editor, you may be sure — and one using language unbecoming to an Assistant-Commissioner of Police, for T.B. knew that the mask was Silinski, and that the detectives even now on their way to St. John Street would find the cage empty and the bird flown.

XVIII. The Affair of the “Castilia”

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      There was no apparent reason for the slump in Spanish Fours. Spanish credit never stood so high as it did at the moment of the panic. Catalonia had been appeased by the restoration of the constitution, the crops throughout Spain had been excellent, and the opening of the Porta Ciento mines, combined with the extension of the mining industry in the north, had all helped to bring about a condition of financial confidence in Spanish securities.

      The “bear” attack, which was made simultaneously on every European Bourse, was, in the face of these facts, madness.

      The Spanish Government rose to the situation and with praiseworthy promptness, issued broadcast warnings to the investing public. Ministers seized any opportunity for speaking on the subject of national financial stability, but the “raid” went on. No stock even remotely associated with, or dependent upon, Spain’s national security was left unassailed. Telegraphs, railways, mines — they suffered in common.

      Then happened that remarkable tragedy that set the whole of Europe gasping. It was a happening tragic in its futility, comic in its very tragedy. Europe was dumbfounded, speechless. There are two accounts given; there is that contained in Blue Book 7541-09, and that issued by the Spanish Government as a White Paper. The latter, although it is little more than a reprint of a number of articles published in the Heraldo de Madrid and the Correspondencia, is as accurate and contains more detail. I have taken these accounts and summarized the story of the momentous occurrence from both.

      On the morning of the 29th of January, the Spanish cruiser Castilia was lying in Vigo Bay. She had been engaged in gun practice on the coast, and had come into Vigo for stores and to give leave to her crew.

      The ship had been coaled, ammunition and stores taken on board, and the warship steamed out to sea. Her commander was Captain Alfonso Tirez, a singularly capable officer who had served with distinction in the Spanish-American War.

      The movements of the ship subsequent to her departure from Vigo Bay are fairly well known.

      She was seen by a fishing fleet heading south, and was sighted level with Oporto by the Portuguese gunboat Braganza. More than this, she exchanged signals with the Braganza, making “All’s well.”

      From this point, her voyage is something of a mystery, although it is evident that she continued a straight course.

      She was not sighted again until the third of February, four days after her departure from Vigo, and the particulars of her reappearance are contained in the report made by Captain Somburn, R.N., of H.M.S. Inveterate, a first-class cruiser.

      The Inveterate was detached from the Atlantic Squadron, then lying at Gibraltar, by order of the Commander-in-Chief, to cruise along the Morocco coast as far south as Mogador, and she was returning when the incident to Captain Somburn, so graphically described, occurred.

      “The ship’s (the Inveterate’s) position at 7.45 was approximately Lat. 35 north and Long. 10 west, and we were due west of Cape Cantin when the Castilia was sighted,” wrote Captain Somburn.

      “She was making a course as to pass us on our starboard bow. Recognizing her, I ordered the ensign to be flown. Nothing untoward happened, and the ship came nearer and nearer.

      “There had been some trouble just before I arrived at Mogador, some little fighting with a Moorish tribe, and thinking that it was on this account that the cruiser was going south, and that possibly the later news I had would be of interest to her captain, I ordered a signal to be made.

      “Mogador all quiet; rising quelled.”

      “To my astonishment, no notice was taken of this, and not even so much as an answering pennant was hoisted.

      “The officer of the watch, who had been looking at the vessel through his telescope, then reported to me that the Castilia was cleared for action, and that her gun crews were standing by.

      “I thought that we were interrupting some manoeuvre, such as ‘man and arm ship,’ and readily forgave her commander, who was so absorbed in his drill that he had ignored my signal.

      “The next minute, however, the Castilia opened fire on me with her forward guns. Both shots missed, one passing our stern and the other just clearing our quarterdeck.

      “I signalled ‘Your firing practice is endangering me,’ for, even then, I could not bring myself to a realization that the captain of the Castilia was in earnest.

      “I was soon nndeceived, however. A shell from his after four-inch gun struck and carried away a portion of the navigation bridge.

      “I immediately СКАЧАТЬ