The Complete Four Just Men (62 page)

Later the boy came in, a straight, little fellow with an olive skin and brown eyes, self-possessed and more intelligent than Manfred had expected from his years. With him was his governess, a pretty Italian girl.

‘I trust Beatrice more than I trust your police,’ said the Countess when the girl had taken her charge back to his lessons. ‘Her father is an officer in the Sicilian police, and she has lived practically all her life under threat of assassination.’

‘Does the boy go out?’ asked Manfred.

‘Once a day, in the car,’ said the Countess. ‘Either I take him or Beatrice and I, or Beatrice alone.’

‘Exactly what do they threaten?’ asked Gonsalez.

‘I will show you one of their letters,’ said the Countess.

She went to a bureau, unlocked it, and came back with a stout sheet of paper. It was of excellent quality and the writing was in copper-plate characters:

You will send us a thousand pounds on the first of March, June, September and December. The money should be in bank-notes and should be sent to H. Frascati, care of J. Jones, 194 Notting Hill Crescent. It will cost you more to get your boy back than it will cost you to keep him with you.

Gonsalez held the paper to the light, then carried it to the window for a better examination.

‘Yes,’ he said as he handed it back. ‘It would be difficult to trace the writer of that. The best expert in the world would fail.’

‘I suppose you can suggest nothing,’ said the Countess, shaking her head in anticipation, as they rose to go.

She spoke to Manfred, but it was Gonsalez who answered.

‘I can only suggest, madame,’ he said, ‘that if your little boy does disappear you communicate with us immediately.’

‘And my dear Manfred,’ he said when they were in the street, ‘that Master Philip
will
disappear is absolutely certain. I’m going to take a cab and drive round London looking for that house of mine.’

‘Are you serious, Leon?’ asked Manfred, and the other nodded.

‘Never more serious in my life,’ he said soberly. ‘I will be at the flat in time for dinner.’

It was nearly eight o’clock, an hour after dinner-time, when he came running up the stairs of the Jermyn Street establishment, and burst into the room.

‘I have got – ’ he began, and then saw Manfred’s face. ‘Have they taken him?’

Manfred nodded.

‘I had a telephone message an hour ago,’ he said.

Leon whistled.

‘So soon,’ he was speaking to himself. And then: ‘How did it happen?’

‘Fare has been here. He left just before you came,’ said Manfred. ‘The abduction was carried out with ridiculous ease. Soon after we left, the governess took the boy out in the car, and they followed their usual route, which is across Hampstead Heath to the country beyond. It is their practice to go a few miles beyond the Heath in the direction of Beacon’s Hill and then to turn back.’

‘Following the same route every day was, of course, sheer lunacy,’ said Leon. ‘Pardon me.’

‘The car always turns at the same point,’ said Manfred, ‘and that is the fact which the abductors had learnt. The road is not especially wide, and to turn the big Rolls requires a little manoeuvring. The chauffeur was engaged in bringing the car round, when a man rode up on a bicycle, a pistol was put under the chauffeur’s nose, and at the same time two men, appearing from nowhere, pulled open the door of the car, snatched away the revolver which the governess carried, and carried the screaming boy down the road to another car, which the driver of the Vinci car had seen standing by the side of the road, but which apparently had not aroused his suspicion.’

‘The men’s faces, were they seen?’

Manfred shook his head.

‘The gentleman who held up the chauffeur wore one of those cheap theatrical beards which you can buy for a shilling at any toyshop, and in addition a pair of motor goggles. Both the other men seemed to be similarly disguised. I was just going to the Countess when you came. If you’ll have your dinner, Leon – ’

‘I want no dinner,’ said Leon promptly.

Commissioner Fare was at the house in Berkeley Square when they called, and he was endeavouring vainly to calm the distracted mother.

He hailed the arrival of the two men with relief.

‘Where is the letter?’ said Leon immediately he entered the room.

‘What letter?’

‘The letter they have sent stating their terms.’

‘It hasn’t arrived yet,’ said the other in a low voice. ‘Do you think that you can calm the Countess? She is on the verge of hysteria.’

She was lying on a sofa deathly white, her eyes closed, and two maidservants were endeavouring to rouse her. She opened her eyes at Manfred’s voice, and looked up.

‘Oh my boy, my boy?’ she sobbed, and clasped his hands in both of hers. ‘You will get him back, please. I will give anything, anything. You cannot name a sum that I will not pay!’

It was then that the butler came into the room bearing a letter on a salver.

She sprang up, but would have fallen had not Manfred’s arm steadied her.

‘It is from – them,’ she cried wildly and tore open the envelope with trembling fingers.

The message was a longer one:

Your son is in a place which is known only to the writer. The room is barred and locked and contains food and water sufficient to last for four days. None but the writer knows where he is or can find him. For the sum of twenty-five thousand pounds his hiding place will be sent to the Countess, and if that sum is not forthcoming, he will be left to starve.

‘I must send the money immediately,’ cried the distraught lady. ‘Immediately! Do you understand? My boy – my boy! . . . ‘

‘Four days,’ murmured Leon, and his eyes were bright. ‘Why it couldn’t be better!’

Only Manfred heard him.

‘Madam,’ said Mr Fare gravely, ‘if you send twenty-five thousand pounds what assurance have you that the boy will be restored? You are a very rich woman. Is it not likely that this man, when he gets your money, will make a further demand upon you?’

‘Besides which,’ interrupted Leon, ‘it would be a waste of money. I will undertake to restore your boy in two days. Perhaps in one, it depends very much upon whether Spaghetti Jones sat up late last night.’

* * *

Mr Spaghetti Jones was nicknamed partly because of his association with the sons and daughters of Italy, and partly because, though a
hearty feeder, he invariably finished his dinner, however many courses
he might have consumed, with the Italian national dish.

He had dined well at his favourite restaurant in Soho, sitting aloof from the commonplace diners, and receiving the obsequious services of the restaurant proprietor with a complacency which suggested that it was no more than his right.

He employed a tooth-pick openly, and then paying his bill, he sauntered majestically forth and hailed a taxi-cab. He was on the point of entering it when two men closed in, one on each side of him.

‘Jones,’ said one sharply.

‘That’s my name,’ said Mr Jones.

‘I am Inspector Jetheroe from Scotland Yard, and I shall take you into custody on a charge of abducting Count Philip Vinci.’

Mr Jones stared at him.

Many attempts had been made to bring him to the inhospitable shelter which His Majesty’s Prisons afford, and they had all failed.

‘You have made a bloomer, haven’t you?’ he chuckled, confident in the efficiency of his plans.

‘Get into that cab,’ said the man shortly, and Mr Jones was too clever and experienced a juggler with the law to offer any resistance.

Nobody would betray him – nobody could discover the boy, he had not exaggerated in that respect. The arrest meant no more than a visit to the station, a few words with the inspector and at the worst a night’s detention.

One of his captors had not entered the cab until he had a long colloquy with the driver, and Mr Jones, seeing through the window the passing of a five-pound note, wondered what mad fit of generosity had overtaken the police force.

They drove rapidly through the West End, down Whitehall, and to Mr Jones’s surprise, did not turn into Scotland Yard, but continued over Westminster Bridge.

‘Where are you taking me?’ he asked.

The man who sat opposite him, the smaller man who had spoken to the cabman, leant forward and pushed something into Mr Jones’s ample waistcoat, and glancing down he saw the long black barrel of an automatic pistol, and he felt a momentary sickness.

‘Don’t talk – yet,’ said the man.

Try as he did, Jones could not see the face of either detective. Passing, however, under the direct rays of an electric lamp, he had a shock. The face of the man opposite to him was covered by a thin white veil which revealed only the vaguest outlines of a face. And then he began to think rapidly. But the solutions to his difficulties came back to that black and shining pistol in the other’s hands.

On through New Cross, Lewisham, and at last the cab began the slow descent of Blackheath Hill. Mr Jones recognised the locality as one in which he had operated from time to time with fair success.

The cab reached the Heath Road, and the man who was sitting by his side opened the window and leant out, talking to the driver. Suddenly the car turned through the gateway of a garden and stopped before the uninviting door of a gaunt, deserted house.

‘Before you get out,’ said the man with the pistol, ‘I want you to understand that if you talk or shout or make any statement to the driver of this cab, I shall shoot you through the stomach. It will take you about three days to die, and you will suffer pains which I do not think your gross mind can imagine.’

Mr Jones mounted the steps to the front door and passed meekly and in silence into the house. The night was chilly and he shivered as he entered the comfortless dwelling. One of the men switched on an electric lamp, by the light of which he locked the door. Then he put the light out, and they found their way up the dusty stairs with the assistance of a pocket lamp which Leon Gonsalez flashed before him.

‘Here’s your little home,’ said Leon pleasantly, and opening the door, turned a switch.

It was a big bathroom. Evidently Leon had found his ideal, thought Manfred, for the room was unusually large, so large that a bed could be placed in one corner, and had been so placed by Mr Gonsalez. George Manfred saw that his friend had had a very busy day. The bed was a comfortable one, and with its white sheets and soft pillows looked particularly inviting.

In the bath, which was broad and deep, a heavy Windsor chair had been placed, and from one of the taps hung a length of rubber hosing.

These things Mr Jones noticed, and also marked the fact that the window had been covered with blankets to exclude the light.

‘Put out your hands,’ said Leon sharply, and before Spaghetti Jones realised what was happening, a pair of handcuffs had been snapped on his wrists, a belt had been deftly buckled through the connecting links, and drawn between his legs.

‘Sit down on that bed. I want you to see how comfortable it is,’ said Leon humorously.

‘I don’t know what you think you’re doing,’ said Mr Jones in a sudden outburst of rage, ‘but by God you’ll know all about it! Take that veil off your face and let me see you.’

‘I’d rather you didn’t,’ said Leon gently. ‘If you saw my face I should be obliged to kill you, and that I have no desire to do. Sit down.’

Mr Jones obeyed wonderingly, and his wonder increased when Leon began to strip his patent shoes and silk socks, and to roll up the legs of his trousers.

‘What is the game?’ asked the man fearfully.

‘Get on to that chair.’ Gonsalez pointed to the chair in the bath. ‘It is an easy Windsor chair – ’

‘Look here,’ began Jones fearfully.

‘Get in,’ snapped Leon, and the big fellow obeyed.

‘Are you comfortable?’ asked Leon politely.

The man glowered at him.

‘You’ll be uncomfortable before I’m through with you,’ he said.

‘How do you like the look of that bed?’ asked Leon. ‘It looks rather cosy, eh?’

Spaghetti Jones did not answer, and Gonsalez tapped him lightly on the shoulder.

‘Now, my gross friend, will you tell me where you have hidden Philip Vinci?’

‘Oh, that is it, is it?’ grinned Mr Jones. ‘Well, you can go on asking!’

He glared down at his bare feet, and then from one to the other of the two men.

‘I don’t know anything about Philip Vinci,’ he said. ‘Who is he?’

‘Where have you hidden Philip Vinci?’

‘You don’t suppose if I knew where he was I’d tell you, do you?’ sneered Jones.

‘If you know, you certainly will tell me,’ answered Leon quietly, ‘but I fancy it is going to be a long job. Perhaps in thirty-six hours’ time? George, will you take the first watch? I’m going to sleep on that very comfortable bed, but first,’ he groped at the back of the bath and found a strap and this he passed round the body of his prisoner, buckling it behind the chair, ‘to prevent you falling off,’ he said pleasantly.

He lay down on the bed and in a few minutes was fast asleep. Leon had that gift of sleeping at will, which has ever been the property of great commanders.

Jones looked from the sleeper to the veiled man who lounged in an easy chair facing him. Two eyes were cut in the veil, and the watcher had a book on his knee and was reading.

‘How long is this going on?’ he demanded.

‘For a day or two,’ said Manfred calmly. ‘Are you very much bored? Would you like to read?’

Mr Jones growled something unpleasant, and did not accept the offer. He could only think and speculate upon what their intentions were. He had expected violence, but apparently no violence was intended. They were merely keeping him prisoner till he spoke. But he would show them! He began to feel tired. Suddenly his head drooped forward, till his chin touched his breast. ‘Wake up,’ said Manfred shortly.

He awoke with a start.

‘You’re not supposed to sleep,’ explained Manfred.

‘Ain’t I?’ growled the prisoner. ‘Well, I’m going to sleep!’ and he settled himself more easily in the chair.

He was beginning to doze when he experienced an acute discomfort and drew up his feet with a yell. The veiled man was directing a stream of ice-cold water upon his unprotected feet, and Mr Jones was now thoroughly awake. An hour later he was nodding again, and again the tiny hose-pipe was directed to his feet, and again Manfred produced a towel and dried them as carefully as though Mr Jones were an invalid.