The Hunchback of Westminster
Page 17
pretending to take a pinch; "very impetuous. You oughtto have asked who I was before you branded me, too, as an impostor. Asa matter of fact, I do belong to the police. Here is my card." And Iquietly produced a card of Detective-Inspector Naylor's which I happenedto have in my waistcoat pocket.
The effect of my act was almost magical. The woman in front of mestarted violently and shivered. Then with a great effort she recoveredherself and gave me another look of defiance. "I see," she said, takingthe piece of cardboard I handed to her with apparent carelessness. "Isuppose you have been sent to look after Miss Velasquon by some friendof hers who does not know her real identity or crimes. It's a pity, agreat pity, for you will have your journey wasted. The patient, ofcourse, is now in our care, and must go with us."
"I don't know so much about that," I returned, although I admit I wasstartled with the daring and resource which this woman was showing, andwhich proved that she was up to every trick and turn and corner of thosewretched lunacy laws of ours. "Do you mind showing me the authorityunder which you are acting?"
"Not at all," she said in her most patronising and offensive tones, andfeeling in a reticule that depended from her waist she produced thisstrange communication:
By Royal Authority.
Criminal Lunatic Asylum, Broadmoor.
_To all whom it may concern_.
This is to Certify that the Bearer of this warrant, Joan Virtue Hand, isa principal warder in the above Institution, and is now absent on amission to recover possession of a particularly daring and dangerousinmate, named Camille Velasquon, who has escaped therefrom, although sheis a fully certified lunatic and has been incarcerated here in the aboveInstitution on a lawful warrant from His Majesty's judge sitting at theCentral Criminal Court, whereat she was charged with the killing andslaying of two of her sisters, aged five and seven respectively.
All good and law-abiding citizens, and particularly members of thepolice force, station-masters, porters, sailors, shipmasters, cabproprietors, lodging-house keepers, and hotel managers, are requested togive her every assistance in conveying her patient to the aboveInstitution. And all persons are warned against impeding the said JoanVirtue Hand in the execution of her mission, for by so doing they renderthemselves liable to the Lunacy Act 1875, c vii s 5, 6, ss 3, and onconviction may be punished by a term of imprisonment not exceeding sixcalendar months.
(Signed) Douglas Llewelyn, _Chief Registrar_.
Very carefully I read this document through three or four times before Imade any comment, any remark, about it at all. I could feel, of course,that the woman was watching me and every second was growing more andmore uneasy under the stress of my unexpected recourse to silence. Butstill I said nothing to her; and at last she could bear it no longer.
"Now, Mr Naylor," she said, speaking to me in my assumed name, but hervoice was shrill with apprehension, "perhaps you will have the goodnessto admit that you have been playing a very dangerous game with me andthat if I liked I could make it very awkward for you at Scotland Yardfor interfering between a warder and an escaped lunatic without properinquiry or warrant."
"Humph," I returned coldly, "I don't know so much about that." Andbefore she could have the slightest notion what I was up to I coollylowered the carriage window, and tearing her authority quickly intothree or four pieces I flung the fragments out on to the railway as thetrain was whirling along at a rate of about twenty miles an hour.
"Man," she stormed, as soon as she saw what I had done, springing to herfeet and grabbing me by the arm, "are you mad?"
"I hope not," I said courteously. "I try to keep sane, although I admitit is hard sometimes when one meets such odd people."
"But do you realise what you have done? You have torn up my warrant."
"I know," I returned sadly. "But then it was no good, you see. It wasa fraud. It had no more to do with Broadmoor than yonder telegraphpost. It was designed to mislead people, and so, to save misconception,I destroyed it." And with a sardonic smile I threw myself back in myseat and folded my arms.
"Oh! you shall pay for this," she hissed, her features workingconvulsively. "Dearly, dearly shall you pay for this! This girl shallnever escape me--never!" And she shot out a threatening finger in thedirection of poor Camille.
"Unfortunately, my dear Mrs Hand," I said in my most lofty tone, "youhave come upon the scene a trifle late for heroics like these. As amatter of fact, you are in the awkward position, not I at all. On thewhole you have been precipitate, very precipitate, I regret to observe.Thus you never got to know by what right I met Miss Velasquon. Younever inquired, indeed. Even when I handed you my card you did notpause and ask yourself whether you were not going just a trifle too farin your rudeness to me and your interference with my good wishes."
"Good wishes? Rubbish," she snapped!
"My good wishes, I repeat," I said with a good deal of firmness, for wasI not about to play my last and most triumphant trump card? "As amatter of fact, those good wishes of mine are very important to you andto these two disguised females whom you drag about with you," and Icasually nodded in the direction of the pseudo-nurses, "for long beforeany of you appeared on the scene I had arrested Camille Velasquon! Shewas a prisoner, and you have all rendered yourselves liable topunishment for attempting to get her out of my hands!"
"Oh, that's impossible," Joan Hand cried; but there was no conviction inher tones, and her two confederates sprang up and made as though theywould slip out of the carriage forthwith.
In an instant I planted myself between them and the door--the only doorthat remained unlocked. "Excuse me, ladies," I said; "I cannot permityou to leave me in this unceremonious fashion."
"Why, we've done nothing," one of them gasped. "We are free."
"Not at all," I blithely observed, "you are all three my prisoners. Icharge all of you with falsely representing yourselves to be nursesengaged at the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum, and, whilst doing so,endeavouring to rescue a prisoner lawfully in my custody on the chargeof a series of frauds in the Mexican Republic,--a girl whom I am takingto the Extradition Court at Bow Street to await the arrival of thenecessary papers; and I warn you all to be careful what you say to me.Any remark you happen to make now I shall use in evidence against you,and if the lot of you don't get put away for a long term of penalservitude it will be mighty odd to me. You are certainly the wickedestgang of females I have ever struck."
"And I'll strike you, you wretch," screamed the woman Hand, and before Icould turn the woman in black caught me a blow on the side of the headthat sent me crashing to my seat.
That was the only chance they had, but they took it almost in a flash.Just then the train was drawing into Vauxhall, and like lightning theytore open the door of the carriage and sprang on to the platform, todisappear instantly in a bewildering network of waiting-rooms.
For my own part, I was rather relieved than otherwise at their flight,and I turned to congratulate Camille Velasquon on the skill with whichwe had managed to outwit them.
But she, too, had disappeared!
CHAPTER TWELVE.
WHAT THE PAPERS SAID.
With a startled exclamation I began to search up and down.
At first, I own, I did not know what to do.
True, the mystery of how that carriage door had been unlocked wasquickly elucidated, for directly I looked out I saw that the engine haddrawn us along a single set of metals to a point in the station whereplatforms stood quite close to the solitary track. There were plenty ofporters on either side of the compartment, and it was no doubt theeasiest thing in the world for the girl to beckon one to her assistanceand to slip off as I was seeking to discover what became of that shamwarderess from Broadmoor and her confederates.
But why should she go at all? At that point she was perfectly safe. Ihad beaten off the attempt to abduct her. So far as either of us couldforesee she would be able to go to her refuge at the headquarters of theOrder of St Bruno with perfect safety and ease. And yet, just
as I hadsecured this, she had vanished! What excuse could I make to JoseCasteno? And could it have been a sudden freak or, after all, hadsomebody got the better of me when my back was turned, and, in spite ofthe woman Hand, had kidnapped the girl in the flash of a moment?
For my own part, I confess I could not believe that in a busy andcrowded station like Vauxhall she could have been whipped off sosuddenly through a locked carriage door without a sound if only she hadhad any desire to remain. Perhaps, too, her secret instructions fromCasteno were to travel to South London only and then to part companywith me. Now I came to think of it I remembered how very vague theSpaniard had been about the entire business, particularly as to what wasto happen when the journey was over.
In the end I