The Stowmarket Mystery Part 22

"I don't know about that," she snorted. "He talked a lot of nonsense when we were married, but I've made him drop it, and he is teaching me j.a.panese."

"His task is a pleasant one. It is the tongue of poetry and love."

Again there was a pause. A minute later Brett was standing in the street trying to determine how best to act.

He was fully persuaded that Jiro had, in the first place, identified the crest as belonging to one of the many Samurai clans. But the motto was new to him, and its discovery had revealed the particular family which claimed its use.

Why did he refuse to impart his knowledge? There must be plenty of j.a.panese in London who would give this information readily.

Again, why did he lie about the type-writer, and endeavour to mislead him as to the make of the machine he used?

To-morrow, for a certainty, Jiro would dispose of the Remington which he now possessed. Well, he should meet with a ready purchaser, if a letter from Brett to every agency in London would expedite matters.

He did not credit Jiro with the death of Sir Alan Hume-Frazer, nor even with complicity in the crime. The j.a.panese had acted as the unwitting tool of a stronger personality, and the little man's brain was even at this moment considering fresh aspects of the affair not previously within his ken.

Moreover, how maddening the whole thing was! Beginning with Hume's fantastic dream, he reviewed the hitherto unknown elements in the case--Capella's fierce pa.s.sion and queer behaviour, culminating in a sudden journey to Italy, Margaret's silent agony, the existence of an Argentine cousin, the evidence of "Rabbit Jack," the punning motto on the Ko-Katana, Jiro's perturbation and desire to prevent his wife's unconscious disclosures.

With the final item came the ludicrous remembrance of that ill-a.s.sorted couple. Laughing, Brett hailed a hansom.

CHAPTER XII

WHAT THE STATIONMASTER SAW

The number of type-writer exchanges in London is not large. Impressing the services of Smith and his wife as amanuenses, Brett despatched the requisite letters before he retired for the night.

He was up betimes and out before breakfast, surprising the domestics of his club by an early visit to the library. The Etona contained a great many service members, and made a feature of its complete editions of Army and Navy lists.

In one of the latter, eight years old, Brett found, among the officers of the _Northumberland_, at that time in commission, "Robert Hume-Fraser, sub-lieutenant." A later volume recorded his retirement from the service.

Hume and Winter reached Brett's flat together.

"Any luck with the j.a.p, sir?" asked the detective cheerily.

Brett told them what had happened, and Winter sighed. Here, indeed, was a promising subject for an arrest. Why not lock him up, and seize the type-writer? But he knew the barrister by this time, and uttered no word.

"And now," said Brett, after a malicious pause to enable Winter to declare himself, "I am going back to Stowmarket. No, Hume, you are not coming with me. When does Fergusson arrive here?"

The question drove from David's face the disappointed look with which he received his friend's announcement.

"To-morrow evening," he replied. "My father thinks the old man should not risk an all-night journey. He has also sent me every detail he can get together, either from doc.u.ments or recollection, bearing upon our family history."

He produced a formidable roll of ma.n.u.script. The old gentleman had evidently devoted many hours and some literary skill to the compilation.

"I will read that in the train," said Brett. "You must start at once for Portsmouth. I have here a list of all the officers serving with your cousin Robert on the _Northumberland_ immediately prior to his quitting the Navy. Portsmouth, Devonport, Southsea, and the neighbourhood will almost certainly contain some of them. If not, people there will know where they are to be found. You must make yourself known to them, and endeavour to gain any sort of news concerning the ex-lieutenant. Naval men roam all over the world. Some of them may have met him in the Argentine, or in any of the South American ports where British wars.h.i.+ps are constantly calling. He was a sailor. He left the Navy under no cloud.

Hence, the presence of a British man-o'-war would draw him like a magnet.

Do not come back here until you bring news of him."

"Why is it so important? You cannot imagine--"

"No; I endeavour to restrain my imagination. I want facts. You are the best person to obtain them. One relative inquiring for another is a natural proceeding. It will not arouse suspicions that you are a debt-collector."

"Suppose I obtain news of his whereabouts?"

"Telegraph to me and I will give you fresh instructions."

Hume walked to the door.

"Give my kind regards to Miss Layton," he said grimly.

"I will be delighted. Work hard. You will see her all the sooner."

"There goes a man in love," continued Brett, addressing the back of Winter's skull, though looking him straight in the face. "His career, his reputation, everything he values most in this world is at stake. He is a sensible, level-headed fellow, who has become embittered by unjust suspicion; yet he would unwillingly let a material item like his cousin's proceedings sink into oblivion just for the sake of telling a girl that she looks more charming to-day than she did yesterday, or some equally original remark peculiar to love-making. How do you account for it, Winter?"

"I give it up," sighed the detective. "We are all fools where women are concerned."

"You surprise me," said the barrister sternly. "Such a personal confession of weakness is unexpected--I may say distressing."

Winter shook his head.

"You're not married, Mr. Brett, or you wouldn't talk like that."

"Well, let it pa.s.s. I want you to make the acquaintance of that loving couple, Mr. and Mrs. Numagawa Jiro. You must disguise yourself. Jiro is to be shadowed constantly. Get any help you require, but do it. Be off, Winter, on the wings of the wind. Fasten on to Jiro. Batten on him. Become his invisible vampire. Above all else, discover his a.s.sociates. Run now to the bank and cash this cheque. It repays the sum you advanced last night, and provides money for expenses."

"I must first see Capella off," gasped the detective.

"All the more reason that you should fly."

Left to himself, the barrister compiled memoranda for an hour or more. He read through what he had written.

"The web is spreading quickly," he murmured. "I wonder what sort of fly we shall catch! Is he buzzing about under our very noses, or will he be an unknown variety? As they say in the Argentine--_Quien sabe?_"

During the journey to Stowmarket he mastered the contents of the bulky doc.u.ment sent from Glen Tochan. It contained a great many irrelevant details, but he made the following notes:--

After the duel in 1763, David Hume, the man who avenged with his sword the supposed injury inflicted upon his father by the first Sir Alan Hume-Frazer, escaped to the Netherlands, and was never heard of again.

There was a local tradition on the Scotch estate that five Hume-Frazers would meet with violent deaths in England. The reason for this singular belief was found in the recorded utterances of an old nurse, popularly credited with the gift of second sight, who prophesied, after the outlawry of the Humes in 1745, that there would be five long-lived generations of both families, and that five Frazers would die in their boots.

"Curiously enough," commented the old gentleman who supplied this information, "Aunt Elspeth's prediction is capable of two interpretations, owing to the fact that the first Sir Alan Frazer a.s.sumed the additional surname of Hume, I have absolutely no knowledge of any distinct branch of the Hume family. David Hume's sister was married to my ancestor at the time of the duel."

Admiral Cunningham, the hardy old salt who brought from j.a.pan the sword used by a Samurai to commit _hari-kara_, or suicide by disembowelling, commanded the British vessels of the combined squadron which sailed up the Bay of Yedo on July 6, 1853, to intimidate the Mikado.

He narrowly escaped a.s.sa.s.sination at the hands of a two-sword man, who was knocked down by a sailor and soundly kicked, after being disarmed.

The Admiral brought home the two weapons taken from his a.s.sailant, and the larger sword was still to be seen in the armoury at Glen Tochan.