Free Detection by Gaslight by Douglas G. Greene

despatched to take charge of the stable very quietly, and the club is to be taken possession of at once—also very quietly. It must be done without a moment’s delay, and as there is a chance that the only detective officers within reach at the moment may be known by sight, I have undertaken to get in first. Perhaps you’ll come? We may have to take the door with a rush.”
    Of course I meant to miss nothing if I could help it, and said so.
    â€œVery well,” replied Hewitt, “we’ll get ourselves up a bit.” He began taking off his collar and tie. “It is getting dusk,” he proceeded, “and we shan’t want old clothes to make ourselves look sufficiently shabby. We’re both wearing bowler hats, which is lucky. Make a dent in yours—if you can do so without permanently damaging it.”
    We got rid of our collars and made chokers of our ties. We turned our coat-collars up at one side only, and then, with dented hats worn raffishly, and our hands in our pockets, we looked disreputable enough for all practical purposes in twilight. A cordon of plain-clothes police had already been forming round the club, we were told, and so we sallied forth. We turned into Windmill Street, crossed Whitfield Street, and in a turning or two we came to the Bakunin Club. I could see no sign of anything like a ring of policemen, and said so. Hewitt chuckled. “Of course not,” he said; “they don’t go about a job of this sort with drums beating and flags flying. But they are all there, and some are watching us. There is the house. I’ll negotiate.”
    The house was one of the very shabby passé sort that abound in that quarter. The very narrow area was railed over, and almost choked with rubbish. Visible above it were three floors, the lowest indicated by the door and one window, and the other two by two windows each—mean and dirty all. A faint light appeared in the top floor, and another from somewhere behind the refuse-heaped area. Everywhere else was in darkness. Hewitt looked intently into the area, but it was impossible to discern anything behind the sole grimy patch of window that was visible. Then we stepped lightly up the three or four steps to the door and rang the bell.
    We could hear slippered feet mounting a stair and approaching. A latch was shifted, a door opened six inches, an indistinct face appeared, and a female voice asked, “ Qui est là? ”
    â€œ Deux camarades ,” Hewitt grunted testily. “ Ouvrez vite .”
    I had noticed that the door was kept from opening further by a short chain. This chain the woman unhooked from the door, but still kept the latter merely ajar, as though intending to assure herself still further. But Hewitt immediately pushed the door back, planted his foot against it, and entered, asking carelessly as he did so, “ Où se trouve Luigi ?”
    I followed on his heels, and in the dark could just distinguish that Hewitt pushed the woman instantly against the wall and clapped his hand to her mouth. At the same moment a file of quiet men were suddenly visible ascending the steps at my heels. They were the police.
    The door was closed behind us almost noiselessly, and a match was struck. Two men stood at the bottom of the stairs, and the others searched the house. Only two men were found—both in a top room. They were secured and brought down.
    The woman was now ungagged, and she used her tongue at a great rate. One of the men was a small, meek-looking slip of a fellow, and he appeared to be the woman’s husband. “Eh, messieurs le police,” she exclaimed vehemently, “it ees not of ‘im, mon pauvre Pierre, zat you sall rrun in. ’Im and me—we are not of the clob—we work only—we housekeep.”
    Hewitt whispered to an officer, and the two men were taken below. Then Hewitt spoke to the woman, whose protests had not ceased. “You say you are not of the