"it's not for me to be brave. That's for you. Have told you a dozen times. you never spoke a truer word in your life than when you said it was going to be a case of suicide."
"Bah! You can't get my nerves on the jump. I've been in the game too long. Do you think you're going to get away with it by ranting a sermon at me or trying to pump me up with fear? Not in this life, Valmon Dain."
"What do you want? mercy? It would be useless to you."
"Lyall stood back, breathing heavily.
"Mercy?" he stormed. "I don't want mercy
It isn't yours to give. mercy is mine, I-----"
"Mercy is neither yours nor mine, Mr Lyall. The police are already informed."
"The police!-----What?" he gasped.
"Are already informed. At least, they will be by the time the morning Dawns. The Yard was communicated with by the last post tonight. A simple letter-carded, undated, unsigned. just such a card as I have dispa
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The man they couldn't Arrest Left it too late
Delbury of Scotland Yard, was a machine made model of all that is just and proper in a force the discipline of which is second only to that of the fighting services. Three minutes to eight every morning of his life saw him swinging off his tram in the shadow of Big Ben. The next three minutes saw him walking the three hundred steps from the tramline to the entrance under the great gloomy arch. The clamorous strokes of eight o'clock saw him hanging his hat up on his own private peg. His subordinates dubbed him 'Old Punctuous," a nickname bestowed on him by his unimpressed Irish second in command. Shaughnessy had only arrived ten minutes before his chief. But in that time he had scrambled through an immense amount of work. A trifle excited and not a little perturbed he met Delbury at the door."Chief, there's the devil of a stew been brewing overnight," he said hurriedly. "I've been getting a line on it, but we're a bit patchy on information yet. Murder job.
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Delbury was still in a bit of a mental fog, but he fastened on to that fact like a leech. There was some personal connection between the sender of those intimations and this murder.Shaughnessy went out and got the system busy. In five minutes the organization had slid into motion. The whole of the internknit workings of the Yard were proceeding swiftly and smoothly about their job of blocking up the exits of the country and notifying the police forces of every town throughout the kingdom."The car ready?" asked Delbury, stricken his head out of the door."Waiting outside," said Shaughnessy, coming back."Right, out you go. I'm starting in five minutes. Must go along and see the chief. He knows all about it, I suppose?""Sure; I phoned him at his house. He came straight down.Wants to see you about it before you go."Delbury hurried round to the great office on the first floor.&n
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Shaughnessy bent down and whispered to his senior."Looks like he came in through that window, chief," he said.Delbury, who was busily examine the contents of the wallet, shrugged and told his second to go over and have a look at it.But as Harper walked across he was cut short by an expression from Delbury in which amazement, incredulity and utter bewilderment were all blended. "Great heavens, Mick, look here!"Delbury had just open a concealed flap in the wallet and taken something out.Shaughnessy picked the card up."That's the thirty-sixth I've seen like that," he said quietly.."And it's the first one that wasn't addressed to the Yard,"Delbury flicked the card over. It was addressed to Willard Lyall, Esq., at his house at Highgate. The post-mark was a smudgy bodge of ink and indecipherable.Shaughnessy took it again and studied it critically. His special
The man they couldn't Arrest Strange phone call
"Not a spot," said Harper disgustedly. "There's millions of finger marks here, but they're all blanks. It looks to me as though Valmon Dain always worked in rubber gloves." "Now that's dammed odd," said Delbury in a puzzled voice."Look! The dead man is wearing rubber gloves."They gaze at the rubber shod hands and racked their brains to elucidate the new point of conjecture."What do you make of it, Mick?" he asked helplessly."Never saw such a case for red herrings in all my life," declared the Irishman helpfully. "Everything's right and everything's wrong-----and nothing's right at all, bedad."Delbury wasn't listening to him. His eyes were fixed in a rigid stare at a point in the wall five feet above the chemical bench.."Look----What's that?" he queried in a strained voice. "Up there in the wall---look."Harper was about to jump up on the bench and investigate wh
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"What on earth do you mean?" asked Mercia irritably."Well, if you must have it in so many words, miss. did he come home last night?" "Mr. Notting hill, you are too perfectly ridiculous for words. Is it your usual procedure to ring up complete strangers at ludicrous hours of the morning and inquire if the owner of the house has been out all night?" Mercia's tone was sarcastic to the point of being politely chilly.. "Miss, if only you knew how urgent it was you wouldn't stand there being snappy like that." There was a whine almost of apprehension in the throaty voice. "will you please answer me?" he added earnestly. "Did he come home safe and sound last night?" "Mr. Lyall didn't go out last night," snapped Mercia sharply. "Didn't he? You can take my word for it, lady-----he did!"Mercia whitened. she felt her skin prickle all over with a sudden horrible feeling of dread. Th
The man they couldn't Arrest The other man got him
Hello! Are you there? I say you shall answer me or I swear I'll tell the police every word you've told me. I could recognize your voice again anywhere. And I will tell them every single thing--- I will, I swear it. What has happened? You are trying to hide something from me. Either that or you are afraid to tell me what you know. What is it? What is all this absurd mystery?" "Absurd lady?" The voice grunted horribly. "You'll find it ain't nothing absurd--- not when you get the news. you'll be putting the blinds up at Greydene inside an hour--- and you can lay your life on that. It ain't up to me to break nasty news to a lady--- and I ain't no hand at it in anyway. But if Mr. Lyall never got home from Hendon last night, it means that the other man got him." "What----what on earth do you mean?" Mercia felt her whole body drain white. It was as though the blood had fallen out of her, leaving her a cold bloodless thing, a mere form cast in marble. Hend
The man they couldn't Arrest The bird flown
Delbury and Shaughnessy climbed out of their car in the Notting Hill backwater. A hurried inspection of the local directory had soon located the jewellery shop that admitted to the proprietorship of one Tansy. They glanced up and down the road. There was no traffic, and only a solitary pedestrian or two hurrying to work broke the monotonous emptiness of the street. "Looks a likely sort of a hole for a jeweller's," said Shaughnessy grimly. "It's meself that's thinking Mr. Tansy has a turnover of tuppence an hour---no less!""Looks good to me," assented Delbury. "The Ghost says he's a smelter and you can stake your buttons on it he's right. Jump around the back. Criminal aren't early risers, as a class. He's still in bed yet. Round you go and hang on to him like a limpet if he tries to make a bolt." Delbury gave his man five minutes grace and then banged thunderously on the knocker. The echoes of it clanged through the house; and
The man they couldn't Arrest Bad news is always difficult to accept
They had not been five minutes in that room before they realised they had stumbled upon a place for which they had been scouring London for many years. "This chap Tansy is cute," admitted Delbury; darn cute. I've been looking for this workshop all over south London, I'd have sworn all the melting was being done on the other side of the bridges. Look here----and here." Parcels of jewellery were lying about openly on the benches. It was obvious that the fence had opened out his entire stock, taken the most negotiable of the best and bolted in panic with as much as he could carry. "There's a phone over there, look--- ring up the yard. Tell them to send another man along to look out for this place or better ask for two . There's far more than one will be able to catalogue. Gosh, the stuff is as thick as leaves in autumn." Shaughnessy did the phoning while Delbury searched the rest of the house. He scoured
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