by Sax Rohmer
XXIII
RAID IN THE RUE ST. CLAUDE
"I perceived," said M. Gaston Max, "that owing to the progress of thework of demolition, and owing to the carelessness of the people incharge--nom d'un nom! they were careless, those!--I was able, froma certain point, to look into a small room fitted up in a way verycurious. There was a sort of bunk somewhat similar to that in a steamerberth, and the walls were covered with paper of a Chinese pattern mostbizarre. No one was in the room when I first perceived it, but I had notbeen looking in for many moments before a Chinaman entered and closedthe shutters. He was hasty, this one.
"Eh bien! I had seen enough. I perceived that my visit to the house ofCagliostro had been dictated by a good little angel. It happened thatfor many months I had been in quest of the headquarters of a certaingroup which I knew, beyond any tiny doubt, to have its claws deep inParisian society. I refer to an opium syndicate"...
Dr. Cumberly started and seemed about to speak; but he restrainedhimself, bending forward and awaiting the detective's next words witheven keener interest than hitherto.
"I had been trying--all vainly--to trace the source from which theopium was obtained, and the place where it was used. I have devoted muchattention to the subject, and have spent some twelve months in the opiumprovinces of China, you understand. I know how insidious a thing it is,this opium, and how dreadful a curse it may become when it gets a holdupon a community. I was formerly engaged upon a most sensational casein San Francisco; and the horrors of the discoveries which we madethere--the American police and myself--have remained with me ever since.Pardieu! I cannot forget them! Therefore when I learnt that an organizedattempt was being made to establish elaborate opium dens upon a mostup-to-date plan, in Paris, I exerted myself to the utmost to break upthis scheme in its infancy"...
Dr. Cumberly was hanging upon every word.
"Apart from the physical and moral ruin attendant upon the vice,"continued Max, "the methods of this particular organization have broughtfinancial ruin to many." He shook his finger at Dr. Cumberly as if toemphasize his certainty upon this point. "I will not go into particularsnow, but there is a system of wholesale robbery--sapristi! of mostingenious brigandage--being practised by this group. Therefore Icongratulated myself upon the inspiration which had led me to mountCagliostro's staircase. The way in which these people had conductedtheir sinister trade from so public a spot as this was really wonderful,but I had already learned to respect the ingenuity of the group, or ofthe man at the head of it. I wasted no time; not I! We raided the housethat evening"...
"And what did you find?" asked Dr. Cumberly, eagerly.
"We found this establishment elaborately fitted, and the whole of thefittings were American. Eh bien! This confirmed me in my belief that theestablishment was a branch of the wealthy concern I have mentioned inSan Francisco. There was also a branch in New York, apparently. We foundsix or eight people in the place in various stages of coma; and I cannottell you their names because--among them, were some well-known in thebest society"...
"Good Heavens, M. Max, you surprise and shock me!"
"What I tell you is but the truth. We apprehended two low fellows whoacted as servants sometimes in the place. We had records of both of themat the Bureau. And there was also a woman belonging to the same class.None of these seemed to me very important, but we were fortunate enoughto capture, in addition, a Chinaman--Sen--and a certain Madame Jean--thelatter the principal of the establishment!"
"What! a woman?"
"Morbleu! a woman--exactly! You are surprised? Yes; and I was surprised,but full inquiry convinced me that Madame Jean was the chief of staff.We had conducted the raid at night, of course, and because of the bignames, we hushed it up. We can do these things in Paris so much moreeasily than is possible here in London." He illustrated, deliveringa kick upon the person of an imaginary malefactor. "Cochon! Va!" heshrugged. "It is finished!
"The place was arranged with Oriental magnificence. Thereception-room--if I can so term that apartment--was like the scene ofRimsky Korsakov's Sheherezade; I could see that very heavy chargeswere made at this establishment. I will not bore you with furtherparticulars, but I will tell you of my disappointment."
"Your disappointment?"
"Yes, I was disappointed. True, I had brought about the closing of thathouse, but of the huge sums of money fraudulently obtained from victims,I could find no trace in the accounts of Madame Jean. She defied mewith silence, simply declining to give any account of herself beyondadmitting that she conducted an hotel at which opium might be smoked ifdesired. Blagueur! Sen, the Chinaman, who professed to speak nothing butChinese--ah! cochon!--was equally a difficult case, Nom d'un nom! I wasin despair, for apart from frauds connected with the concern, I hadmore than small suspicions that at least one death--that of a wealthybanker--could be laid at the doors of the establishment in Rue St.Claude."...
Dr. Cumberly bent yet lower, watching the speaker's face.
"A murder!" he whispered.
"I do not say so," replied Max, "but it certainly might have been. Thecase then must, indeed, have ended miserably, as far as I was concerned,if I had not chanced upon a letter which the otherwise prudent MadameJean had forgotten to destroy. Triomphe! It was a letter of instruction,and definitely it proved that she was no more than a kind of glorifiedconcierge, and that the chief of the opium group was in London."
"Undoubtedly in London. There was no address on the letter, and no date,and it was curiously signed: Mr. King."
"Mr. King!"
Dr. Cumberly rose slowly from his chair, and took a step toward M. Max.
"You are interested?" said the detective, and shrugged his shoulders,whilst his mobile mouth shaped itself in a grim smile. "Pardieu! Iknew you would be! Acting upon another clue which the letter--pricelessletter--contained, I visited the Credit Lyonnais. I discovered that anaccount had been opened there by Mr. Henry Leroux of London on behalf ofhis wife, Mira Leroux, to the amount of a thousand pounds."
"A thousand pounds--really!" cried Dr. Cumberly, drawing his heavy browstogether--"as much as that?"
"Certainly. It was for a thousand pounds," repeated Max, "and the wholeof that amount had been drawn out."
"The whole thousand?"
"The whole thousand; nom d'un p'tit bonhomme! The whole thousand!Acting, as I have said, upon the information in this always pricelessletter, I confronted Madame Jean and the manager of the bank with eachother. Morbleu! 'This,' he said, 'is Mira Leroux of London!'"...
"What!" cried Cumberly, seemingly quite stupefied by this lastrevelation.
Max spread wide his palms, and the flexible lips expressed sympathy withthe doctor's stupefaction.
"It is as I tell you," he continued. "This Madame Jean had been posingas Mrs. Leroux, and in some way, which I was unable to understand,her signature had been accepted by the Credit Lyonnais. I examined thespecimen signature which had been forwarded to them by the London Countyand Suburban Bank, and I perceived, at once, that it was not a case ofcommon forgery. The signatures were identical"...
"Therefore," said Cumberly, and he was thinking of Henry Leroux, whomFate delighted in buffeting--"therefore, the Credit Lyonnais is notresponsible?"
"Most decidedly not responsible," agreed Max. "So you see I now havetwo reasons for coming to London: one, to visit the London County andSuburban Bank, and the other to find... Mr. King. The first part ofmy mission I have performed successfully; but the second"... again heshrugged, and the lines of his mouth were humorous.
Dr. Cumberly began to walk up and down the carpet.
"Poor Leroux!" he muttered--"poor Leroux."
"Ah! poor Leroux, indeed," said Max. "He is so typical a victim of thismost infernal group!"
"What!" Dr. Cumberly turned in his promenade and stared at thedetective--"he's not the only one?"
"My dear sir," said Max, gently, "the victims of Mr. King are truly asthe sands of Arabia."
"Good heavens!" muttered Dr. Cumberly; "good heavens!"
"I came immediately to London," continued Max, "and presented myself atNew Scotland Yard. There I discovered that my inquiry was complicated bya ghastly crime which had been committed in the flat of Mr. Leroux; butI learned, also, that Mr. King was concerned in this crime--his name hadbeen found upon a scrap of paper clenched in the murdered woman's hand!"
"I was present when it was found," said Dr. Cumberly.
"I know you were," replied Max. "In short, I discovered that the PalaceMansions murder case was my case, and that my case was the PalaceMansions case. Eh bien! the mystery of the Paris draft did not detain melong. A call upon the manager of the London County and Suburban Bank atCharing Cross revealed to me the whole plot. The real Mrs. Leroux hadnever visited that bank; it was Madame Jean, posing as Mrs. Leroux, whowent there and wrote the specimen signature, accompanied by a certainSoames, a butler"...
"I know him!" said Dr. Cumberly, grimly, "the blackguard!"
"Truly a blackguard, truly a big, dirty blackguard! But it is suchcanaille as this that Mr. King discovers and uses for his own ends.Paris society, I know for a fact; has many such a cankerworm in itsheart. Oh! it is a big case, a very big case. Poor Mr. Leroux beingconfined to his bed--ah! I pity him--I took the opportunity to visit hisflat in Palace Mansions with Inspector Dunbar, and I obtained furtherevidence showing how the conspiracy had been conducted; yes. Forinstance, Dunbar's notebook showed me that Mr. Leroux was accustomed toreceive letters from Mrs. Leroux whilst she was supposed to be in Paris.I actually discovered some of those letters, and they bore no dates.This, if they came from a woman, was not remarkable, but, upon oneof them I found something that WAS remarkable. It was still in itsenvelope, you must understand, this letter, its envelope bearing theParis post-mark. But impressed upon the paper I discovered a secondpost-mark, which, by means of a simple process, and the use of amagnifying glass, I made out to be Bow, East!"
"What!"
"Do you understand? This letter, and others doubtless, had been enclosedin an envelope and despatched to Paris from Bow, East? In short, Mrs.Leroux wrote those letters before she left London; Soames never postedthem, but handed them over to some representative of Mr. King; thisother, in turn, posted them to Madame Jean in Paris! Morbleu! these areclever rogues! This which I was fortunate enough to discover had beenon top, you understand, this billet, and the outer envelope being veryheavily stamped, that below retained the impress of the post-mark."
"Poor Leroux!" said Cumberly again, with suppressed emotion. "Thatunsuspecting, kindly soul has been drawn into the meshes of thisconspiracy. How they have been wound around him, until..."
"He knows the truth about his wife?" asked Max, suddenly glancing up atthe physician, "that she is not in Paris?"
"I, myself, broke the painful news to him," replied Cumberly--"after aconsultation with Miss Ryland and my daughter. I considered it my dutyto tell him, but I cannot disguise from myself that it hastened, if itdid not directly occasion, his breakdown."
"Yes, yes," said Max; "we have been very fortunate however in divertingthe attention of the press from the absence of Mrs. Leroux throughoutthis time. Nom d'un nom! Had they got to know about the scrap ofpaper found in the dead woman's hand, I fear that this would have beenimpossible."
"I do not doubt that it would have been impossible, knowing the Londonpress," replied Dr. Cumberly, "but I, too, am glad that it has beenachieved; for in the light of your Paris discoveries, I begin at last tounderstand."
"You were not Mrs. Leroux's medical adviser?"
"I was not," replied Cumberly, glancing sharply at Max. "Good heavens,to think that I had never realized the truth!"
"It is not so wonderful at all. Of course, as I have seen from theevidence which you gave to the police, you knew that Mrs. Vernon wasaddicted to the use of opium?"
"It was perfectly evident," replied Cumberly; "painfully evident. I willnot go into particulars, but her entire constitution was undermined bythe habit. I may add, however, that I did not associate the vice withher violent end, except"...
"Ah!" interrupted Max, shaking his finger at the physician, "youare coming to the point upon which you disagreed with the divisionalsurgeon! Now, it is an important point. You are of opinion thatthe injection in Mrs. Vernon's shoulder--which could not have beenself-administered"...
"She was not addicted to the use of the needle," interrupted Cumberly;"she was an opium SMOKER."
"Quite so, quite so," said Max: "it makes the point all the more clear.You are of opinion that this injection was made at least eight hoursbefore the woman's death?"
"At least eight hours--yes."
"Eh bien!" said Max; "and have you had extensive experience of suchinjections?"
Dr. Cumberly stared at him in some surprise.
"In a general way," he said, "a fair number of such cases have comeunder my notice; but it chances that one of my patients, a regularpatient--is addicted to the vice."
"Injections?"
"Only as a makeshift. He has periodical bouts of opium smoking--what Imay term deliberate debauches."
"Ah!" Max was keenly interested. "This patient is a member of goodsociety?"
"He's a member of Parliament," replied Cumberly, a faint, humorous glintcreeping into his gray eyes; "but, of course, that is not an answerto your question! Yes, he is of an old family, and is engaged to thedaughter of a peer."
"Dr. Cumberly," said Max, "in a case like the present--apart from thefact that the happiness--pardieu! the life--of one of your own friendsis involved... should you count it a breach of professional etiquette todivulge the name of that patient?"
It was a disturbing question; a momentous question for a fashionablephysician to be called upon to answer thus suddenly. Dr. Cumberly, whohad resumed his promenade of the carpet, stopped with his back to M.Max, and stared out of the window into Harley Street.
M. Max, a man of refined susceptibilities, came to his aid,diplomatically.
"It is perhaps overmuch to ask you," he said. "I can settle theproblem in a more simple manner. Inspector Dunbar will ask you for thisgentleman's name, and you, as witness in the case, cannot refuse to giveit."
"I can refuse until I stand in the witness-box!" replied Cumberly,turning, a wry smile upon his face.
"With the result," interposed Max, "that the ends of justice might bedefeated, and the wrong man hanged!"
"True," said Cumberly; "I am splitting hairs. It is distinctly a breachof professional etiquette, nevertheless, and I cannot disguise the factfrom myself. However, since the knowledge will never go any further,and since tremendous issues are at stake, I will give you the name of myopium patient. It is Sir Brian Malpas!"
"I am much indebted to you, Dr. Cumberly," said Max; "a thousandthanks;" but in his eyes there was a far-away look. "Malpas--Malpas!Where in this case have I met with the name of Malpas?"
"Inspector Dunbar may possibly have mentioned it to you in reference tothe evidence of Mr. John Exel, M. P. Mr. Exel, you may remember"...
"I have it!" cried Max; "Nom d'un nom! I have it! It was from Sir BrianMalpas that he had parted at the corner of Victoria Street on the nightof the murder, is it not so?"
"Your memory is very good, M. Max!"
"Then Mr. Exel is a personal friend of Sir Brian Malpas?
"Excellent! Kismet aids me still! I come to you hoping that you maybe acquainted with the constitution of Mrs. Leroux, but no! beholdme disappointed in this. Then--morbleu! among your patients I find apossible client of the opium syndicate!"
"What! Malpas? Good God! I had not thought of that! Of course, he mustretire somewhere from the ken of society to indulge in these opiumorgies"...
"Quite so. I have hopes. Since it would never do for Sir Brian Malpas toknow who I am and what I seek, a roundabout introduction is provided bykindly Providence--Ah! that good little angel of mine!--in the person ofMr. John Exel, M. P."
"I will introduce you to Mr. Exel with pleasure."
"Eh bien! Let it be arranged as soon as possible," sa
id M. Max. "To Mr.John Exel I will be, as to Miss Ryland (morbleu! I hate me!) and MissCumberly (pardieu! I loathe myself!), M. Gaston! It is ten o'clock, andalready I hear your first patient ringing at the front-door bell. Goodmorning, Dr. Cumberly."
Dr. Cumberly grasped his hand cordially.
"Good morning, M. Max!"
The famous detective was indeed retiring, when:
"M. Max!"
He turned--and looked into the troubled gray eyes of Dr. Cumberly.
"You would ask me where is she--Mrs. Leroux?" he said. "My friend--Imay call you my friend, may I not?--I cannot say if she is living or isdead. Some little I know of the Chinese, quite a little; nom de dieu!...I hope she is dead!"...
