The Golden Face Part 3

I watched him with curiosity. It seemed such an unusual proceeding.

But I recollected that I was dealing with strange a.s.sociates--people whom I afterwards found to be perhaps the most ingenious crooks in Europe.

"Poor Lu Chang," exclaimed my old company commander with a laugh. "If you drown him he won't feel it!"

Duperre watched the expression of surprise upon my face as he packed the whole of the broken jewelry into the dog.

"Now what I want you to do, Hargreave," he said, "is to drown Lu Chang in the Seine. Lots of people in Paris, who are not lovers of dogs, are flinging them into the river because of the new excessive tax upon domestic pets. You will just toss Lu Chang over the Pont Neuf. The police can't interfere, even though they see you. You will only have put the dog out of the world rather than pay the double tax."

He watched my natural hesitation.

"Isn't he a little dear!" exclaimed Madame, stroking the dog's fur.

"Poor Lu Chang! He won't float with the gold inside him!"

"No," laughed Duperre. "He'll go plumb to the bottom!"

It was on the tip of my tongue to excuse myself, but I remembered that I was in the service of Rudolph Rayne, the country squire of Overstow, and paid handsomely. And, after all, it was no great risk to fling the stuffed dog into the river.

I am a lover of dogs, and had the animal been alive nothing would have induced me to carry out his suggestion.

But as it had been dead long ago, for I saw some signs of moth in the fur, and as I was in Paris at the bidding of my employer, I consented, and carrying the little Peke beneath my arm I walked along the Quai du Louvre to the old bridge which, in two parts, spans the river. Just before I gained the Rue Dauphine, on the other side, I paused and looked down into the water. An agent of police was regulating the traffic on my left, and he being in controversy with the driver of a motor-lorry, I took my opportunity and dropped the dog with its secret into the water.

Two boys had watched me, so I waited a moment, then turning upon my heel, I retraced my steps back to the Hotel Ombrone, having been absent about twenty minutes.

As I entered Room 88, three Frenchmen, who had ascended in the lift, followed me in.

Madame was writing a letter, while Duperre was in the act of lighting a cigarette. We started in surprise, for next instant we all three found ourselves under arrest; the well-dressed strangers being officers of the Surete. One of them was the man in the white spats who had been attracted by Madame in the Bois.

"Arrest!" gasped Duperre.

As he did so, an undersized, rather shabbily-dressed man of sixty or so put his head into the door inquisitively, and realizing that something unpleasant was occurring, quickly withdrew and disappeared.

I saw that he exchanged with Duperre a glance of recognition combined with apprehension, and concluded that it was the man Heydenryck, the dealer in stolen gems.

Meanwhile the elder of the three detectives told us that they had reason to believe that jewelry stolen from a London hotel was in our possession, and that the place would be searched.

"Messieurs, you are quite at liberty to search," laughed Duperre, treating the affair as a joke. "Here are my keys!"

At once they began to rummage every hole and corner in the room as well as the luggage of both Duperre and his wife. The brown suit-case which was in the wardrobe in the bedroom attracted their attention, but when unlocked was found to contain only a few modern novels.

At this they drew back in chagrin and disappointment. I knew that the broken gold was safely at the bottom of the Seine, but where were the gems?

It was all very well for Duperre to bluff, but they would, I felt convinced, eventually be found. The police, not content with searching the personal belongings of my friend, took up the floor-boards, and even stripped some paper from the wall and carefully examined every article of furniture. Afterwards they went to my room at the end of the corridor and thoroughly searched it.

At last the inspector, still mystified, ordered two taxis to be called, as it was his intention to take us at once before the examining magistrate.

"Madame had better put on her hat at once," he added, bristling with authority.

Thus ordered, she reluctantly obeyed and put on her big feathered hat before the gla.s.s. Then a few moments later we were conducted downstairs and away to the Prefecture of Police.

After all being thoroughly searched, Madame being examined by a prison wardress, we were ushered into the dull official room of Monsieur Rodin, the well-known examining magistrate, who for a full hour plied us with questions. Duperre and his wife preserved an outward dignity that amazed me. They complained bitterly of being accused without foundation, while on my part I answered the police official that I had quite accidentally come across my old superior officer.

Time after time Monsieur Rodin referred to the papers before him, evidently much puzzled. It seemed that Madame had been recognized in the Bois by the impressionable Frenchman who I had believed, had been attracted by her handsome face.

That information had been sent by Scotland Yard to Paris regarding the stolen jewels was apparent. Yet the fact that the locked suit-case only contained books and that nothing had been found in our possession--thanks to the forethought of Duperre--the police now found themselves in a quandary. The man in the white spats whom we had seen in the Bois identified Madame as Marie Richaud, a Frenchwoman who had lived in Philadelphia for several years, and who had been implicated two years before in the great frauds on the Bordeaux branch of the Societe Generale.

Madame airily denied any knowledge of it. She had only arrived in Paris with her husband from Rome a few days before, she declared. And surely enough the visas upon their pa.s.sports showed that was so, even though I had seen her at Overstow!

How I withstood that hour I know not. In the end, however, Monsieur Rodin ceased his questions and we were put into the cells till the next morning.

Imagine the sleepless night I spent! I hated myself for falling into the trap which Rayne, the crafty organizer of the gang, had so cleverly laid for me. Yet was I not in the hands of the police?

But the main question in my mind was the whereabouts of that little pile of gems.

Next day we were taken publicly before another magistrate and defended by a clever lawyer whom Duperre had engaged. It was found that not a t.i.ttle of evidence could be brought against us, and, even though the magistrate expressed his strong suspicions, we were at last released.

As we walked out into the sunlight of the boulevard, Duperre glanced at his watch, and exclaimed:

"I wonder if we shall be in time to catch the train? I must telephone to Heydenryck at once."

Five minutes later he was in a public telephone-box speaking to the receiver of stolen goods.

Then, without returning to the Hotel Ombrone, we took a taxi direct to the Gare de Lyon.

As Duperre took three first-cla.s.s tickets to Fontainebleau, the undersized, grave-faced old man whom I had seen at the moment of our arrest followed him, and also took a ticket to the same destination.

We entered an empty compartment where, just before the train moved off, the old man joined us.

He posed as a perfect stranger, but as soon as the train had left the platform my companion introduced him to me.

"I called last night and saw what had happened. Surely you have all three had a narrow escape!" he exclaimed.

"Yes," said Duperre. "It was fortunate that Hylda recognized the _sous-inspecteur_ Bossant in the Bois. She put me on my guard. I knew we should be arrested, so I took precautions to get rid of the gold and conceal the stones."

"But where are they?" I asked eagerly, as the train ran through the first station out of Paris. "They are still hidden in the hotel, I suppose. We've all been searched!"

Madame laughed merrily, and removing her hat, unceremoniously tore out the three great feathers, the large quills of which she held up to the light before my eyes.

I then saw to my amazement that, though hardly distinguishable, all three of the hollow quills were filled with gems, the smaller being put in first.

At the detective's own suggestion she had put on her hat when arrested, and she had worn it during the time she had been searched, during the examination by the magistrate, and during her trial!

Duperre was certainly nothing if not ingenious and his _sang-froid_ had saved us all from terms of imprisonment.

Madame replaced the valuable feathers in her hat, and when we arrived at Fontainebleau we drove at once to the Hotel de France, opposite the palace, where we took an excellent _dejeuner_ in a private room.

And before we left, Duperre had disposed of Lady Norah's jewels at a very respectable figure, which the sly old receiver paid over in thousand-franc notes.

I marveled at my companion's ingenuity, whereupon he laughed airily, replying:

"When 'The Golden Face' arranges a _coup_ it never fails to come off--I a.s.sure you. The police have to be up very early to get the better of him. His one injunction to all of us is that we shall be ready at all times to show clean hands--as we have to-day! But let's get away, Hargreave--back to London, I think, don't you?"