Free Four Just Men by Edgar Wallace Page B

Falmouth; "we thought you might be able to help us in our search for Thery."
    "Luckily I was in Paris," said the Spaniard; "yes, I know Thery, and I am astounded to find him in such distinguished company. Do I know the Four?"--his shoulders went up to his ears--"who does? I know of them--there was a case at Malaga, you know ? . . . Thery is not a good criminal. I was astonished to learn that he had joined the band."
    "By the way," said the chief, picking up a copy of the police notice that lay on his desk, and running his eye over it, "your people omitted to say--although it really isn't of very great importance--what is Thery's trade?"
    The Spanish policeman knitted his brow.
    "Thery's trade! Let me remember." He thought for a moment. "Thery's trade ? I don't think I know; yet I have an idea that it is something to do with rubber. His first crime was stealing rubber; but if you want to know for certain----"
    The Commissioner laughed.
    "It really isn't at all important," he said lightly.
CHAPTER VII. THE MESSENGER OF THE FOUR
    There was yet another missive to be handed to the doomed Minister. In the last he had received there had occurred the sentence: One more warning you shall receive, and so that we may be assured it shall not go astray, our next and last message shall be delivered into your hands by one of us in person.
    This passage afforded the police more comfort than had any episode since the beginning of the scare. They placed a curious faith in the honesty of the Four Men; they recognised that these were not ordinary criminals and that their pledge was inviolable. Indeed, had they thought otherwise the elaborate precautions that they were taking to ensure the safety of Sir Philip would not have been made. The honesty of the Four was their most terrible characteristic.
    In this instance it served to raise a faint hope that the men who were setting at defiance the establishment of the law would overreach themselves. The letter conveying this message was the one to which Sir Philip had referred so airily in his conversation with his secretary. It had come by post, bearing the date mark, Balham, 12.15.
    "The question is, shall we keep you absolutely surrounded, so that these men cannot by any possible chance carry out their threat?" asked Superintendent Falmouth in some perplexity, "or shall we apparently relax our vigilance in order to lure one of the Four to his destruction ?"
    The question was directed to Sir Philip Ramon as he sat huddled up in the capacious depths of his office chair.
    "You want to use me as a bait?" he asked sharply.
    The detective expostulated.
    "Not exactly that, sir; we want to give these men a chance----"
    "I understand perfectly," said the Minister, with some show of irritation.
    The detective resumed :
    "We know now how the infernal machine was smuggled into the House; on the day on which the outrage was committed an old member, Mr. Bascoe, the member for North Torrington, was seen to enter the House."
    "Well ?" asked Sir Philip in surprise.
    "Mr. Bascoe was never within a hundred miles of the House of Commons on that date," said the detective quietly. "We might never have found it out, for his name did not appear in the division list. We've been working quietly on that House of Commons affair ever since, and it was only a couple o£ days ago that we made the discovery."
    Sir Philip sprang from his chair and nervously paced the floor of his room.
    "Then they are evidently well acquainted with the conditions of life in England," he asserted rather than asked.
    "Evidently; they've got the lay of the land, and that is one of the dangers of the situation."
    "But," frowned the other, "you have told me there were no dangers, no real dangers."
    "There is this danger, sir," replied the detective, eyeing the Minister steadily, and dropping his voice as he spoke, "men who are capable of making such disguise are really outside the ordinary run of criminals. I don't know what their game is, but whatever