Partners in Crime (Tommy & Tuppence 2)

Amongst Mrs. Laidlaw's train of admirers was a simple but extremely wealthy gentleman of the name of Hank Ryder.

Mr. Ryder came from Alabama, and from the first he was disposed to make a friend and confidant of Tommy.

"That's a wonderful woman, sir," said Mr. Ryder, following the lovely Marguerite with reverential eyes. "Plumb full of civilization. Can’t beat la gaie France, can you? When I'm near her, I feel as though I was one of the Almighty's earliest experiments. I guess He'd got to get His hand in before He attempted anything so lovely as that perfectly lovely woman."

Tommy agreeing politely with these sentiments, Mr. Ryder unburdened himself still further.

"Seems kind of a shame a lovely creature like that should have money worries."

"Has she?" asked Tommy.

"You betcha life she has. Queer fish, Laidlaw. She's skeered of him. Told me so. Daren't tell him about her little bills."

"Are they little billls?" asked Tommy.

"Well-when I say little! After all, a woman's got to wear clothes, and the less there are of them the more they cost, the way I figure it out. And a pretty woman like that doesn't want to go about in last season's goods. Cards too, the poor little thing's been mighty unlucky at cards. Why, she lost fifty to me last night."

"She won two hundred from Jimmy Faulkener the night before," said Tommy drily.

"Did she indeed? That relieves my mind some. By the way, there seems to be a lot of dud notes floating around in your country just now. I paid in a bunch at my bank this morning, and twenty-five of them were down and outers, so the polite gentleman behind the counter informed me."

"That's rather a large proportion. Were they new looking?"

"New and crisp as they make 'em. Why, they were the ones Mrs. Laidlaw paid over to me, I reckon. Wonder where she got 'em from. One of these toughs on the race course as likely as not."

"Yes," said Tommy. "Very likely."

"You know, Mr. Beresford, I'm new to this sort of high life. All these swell dames, and the rest of the outfit. Only made my pile a short while back. Came right over to Yurrop to see life."

Tommy nodded. He made a mental note to the effect that with the aid of Marguerite Laidlaw Mr. Ryder would probably see a good deal of life and that the price charged would be heavy.

Meantime, for the second time, he had evidenced that the forged notes were being distributed pretty near at hand, and that in all probability Marguerite Laidlaw had a hand in their distribution.

On the following night he himself was given a proof.

It was at that small select meeting place mentioned by Inspector Marriot. There was dancing there, but the real attraction of the place lay behind a pair of imposing folding doors. There were two rooms there with green baize covered tables, where vast sums changed hands nightly.

Marguerite Laidlaw, rising at last to go, thrust a quantity of small notes into Tommy's hands.

"They are so bulkee, Tommee-you will change them, yes? A beeg note. See my so sweet leetle bag, it bulges him to distraction."

Tommy brought her the hundred pound note she asked for. Then in a quiet corner, he examined the notes she had given him. At least a quarter of them were counterfeit.

But where did she get her supplies from? To that he had as yet no answer. By means of Albert's cooperation, he was almost sure that Laidlaw was not the man. His movements had been watched closely and had yielded no result.

Tommy suspected her father, the saturnine M. Heroulade. He went to and fro to France fairly often. What could be simpler than to bring the notes across with him? A false bottom to a trunk-something of that kind.

Tommy strolled slowly out of the Club, absorbed in these thoughts, but was suddenly recalled to immediate necessities. Outside in the street was Mr. Hank P. Ryder, and it was clear at once that Mr. Ryder was not strictly sober. At the moment he was trying to hang his hat on the radiator of a car, and missing it by some inches every time.

"This goddarned hatshtand, this goddarned hatshtand," said Mr. Ryder tearfully. "Not like that in the Shtates. Man can hang up hishhat every night-every night, sir. You're wearing two hatshs. Never sheen a man wearing two hatsh before. Mushtbe effectclimate."

"Perhaps I've got two heads," said Tommy gravely.

"Sho you have," said Mr. Ryder. "Thatsh odd. Thatsh remarkable fac. Letsh have a cocktail. Prohibition-probishun-thatsh whatsh done me in. I guess I'm drunk-constootionally drunk. Cocktailsh-mixed 'em-Angel's Kiss- that's Marguerite-lovely creature, fon' o' me too. Horshes Neck, two Martinis-three Road to Ruinsh-no, roadshto roon-mixed 'em all-in a beer tankard. Bet me I wouldn't-I shaid-to hell, I shayed-"

Tommy interrupted.

"That's all right," he said soothingly. "Now what about getting home?"

"No home to go to," said Mr. Ryder sadly, and wept.

"What Hotel are you staying at?" asked Tommy.

"Can't go home," said Mr. Ryder. "Treasurehunt. Swell thing to do. She did it. Whitechapel-White heartsh, white headsh shorrow to the grave-"

"Never mind that," said Tommy. "Where are you-"

But Mr. Ryder became suddenly dignified. He drew himself erect and attained a sudden miraculous command over his speech.

"Young man, I'm telling you. Margee took me. In her car Treasure Hunting. Englisharishtocrashy all do it. Under the cobblestones. Five hundred poundsh. Solemn thought, 'tis solemn thought. I'm telling you, young man. You've been kind to me. I've got your welfare at heart, sir, at heart. We Americans-"

Tommy interrupted him this time with even less ceremony.

"What's that you say? Mrs. Laidlaw took you in a car?"

The American nodded with a kind of owlish solemnity.

"To Whitechapel?" Again that owlish nod. "And you found five hundred pounds there?"

Mr. Ryder struggled for words.

"S-she did," he corrected his questioner. "Left me outside. Outside the door. Always left outside. It's kinder sad. Outside-always outside."

"Would you know your way there?"

"I guess so. Hank Ryder doesn't lose his bearings-"

Tommy hauled him along unceremoniously. He found his own car where it was waiting, and presently they were bowling eastward. The cool air revived Mr. Ryder. After slumping against Tommy's shoulder in a kind of stupor, he awoke clear headed and refreshed.

"Say, boy, where are we?" he demanded.

"Whitechapel," said Tommy crisply. "Is this where you came with Mrs. Laidlaw tonight?"'

"It looks kinder familiar," admitted Mr. Ryder looking round. "Seems to me we turned off to the left somewhere down here. That's it-that street there."

Tommy turned off obediently. Mr. Ryder issued directions.

"That's it. Sure. And round to the right. Say, aren't the smells awful? Yes, past the pub at the corner-sharp round, and stop at the mouth of that little alley. But what's the big idea? Hand it to me. Some of the oof left behind? Are we going to put one over on them?"

"That's exactly it," said Tommy. "We're going to put one over on them. Rather a joke, isn't it?"

"I'll tell the world," assented Mr. Ryder. "Though I'm just a mite hazed about it all," he ended wistfully.

Tommy got out and assisted Mr. Ryder to alight also. They advanced into the alley way. On the left were the backs of a row of dilapidated houses, most of which had doors opening into the alley. Mr. Ryder came to a stop before one of these doors.

"In here she went," he declared. "It was this door-I'm plumb certain of it."

"They all look very alike," said Tommy. "Reminds me of the story of the soldier and the Princess. You remember, they made a cross on the door to show which one it was. Shall we do the same?"

Laughing, he drew a piece of white chalk from his pocket and made a rough cross low down on the door. Then he looked up at various dim shapes that prowled high on the walls of the alley, one of which was uttering a blood curdling yawl.

"Lots of cats about," he remarked cheerfully.

"What is the procedure?" asked Mr. Ryde

r. "Do we step inside?"

"Adopting due precautions we do," said Tommy.

He glanced up and down the alley way, then softly tried the door. It yielded. He pushed it open, and peered into a dim yard.

Noiselessly he passed through, Mr. Ryder on his heels.

"Gee!" said the latter. "There's someone coming down the alley."

He slipped outside again. Tommy stood still for a minute, then hearing nothing went on. He took a torch from his pocket and switched on the light for a brief second. That momentary flash enabled him to see his way ahead. He pushed forward and tried the closed door ahead of him. That too gave, and very softly he pushed it open and went in.

After standing still a second and listening, he again switched on the torch, and at that flash, as though at a given signal, the place seemed to rise round him. Two men were in front of him, two men were behind him. They closed in on him, and bore him down.