Four Just Men by Edgar Wallace Read Free Book Online Page B

believed that these chaps meant business," he said cheerfully, "and what is more, I feel pretty certain that they will keep their promise. When I was in Genoa"--Welby got much of his information first-hand --"when I was in Genoa--or was it Sofia ?--I met a man who told me about the Trelovitch affair. He was one of the men who assassinated the King of Servia, you remember. Well, one night he left his quarters to visit a theatre--the same night he was found dead in the public square with a sword thrust through his heart. There were two extraordinary things about it." The foreign editor ticked them on off his fingers. "First, the General was a noted swordsman, and there was every evidence that he had not been killed in cold blood, but had been killed in a duel; the second was that he wore corsets, as many of these Germanised officers do, and one of his assailants had discovered this fact, probably by a sword thrust, and had made him discard them; at any rate when he was found this frippery was discovered close by his body."
    "Was it known at the time that it was the work of the Four?" asked the editor.
    Welby shook his head.
    "Even I had never heard of them before," he said resentfully. Then asked, "What have you done about your little scare?"
    "I've seen the hall porters and the messengers, and every man on duty at the time, but the coming and the going of our mysterious friend--I don't suppose there was more than one--is unexplained. It really is a remarkable thing. Do you know, Welby, it gives me quite an uncanny feeling; the gum on the envelope was still wet; the letter must have been written on the premises and sealed down within a few seconds of my entering the room."
    "Were the windows open?"
    "No; all three were shut and fastened, and it would have been impossible to enter the room that way."
    The detective who came to receive a report of the circumstances endorsed this opinion.
    "The man who wrote this letter must have left your room not longer than a minute before you arrived," he concluded, and took charge of the letter.
    Being a young and enthusiastic detective, before finishing his investigations he made a most minute search of the room, turning up carpets, tapping walls, inspecting cupboards, and taking laborious and unnecessary measurements with a foot-rule.
    "There are a lot of our chaps who sneer at detective stories," he explained to the amused editor, "but I have read almost everything that has been written by Gaboriau and Conan Doyle, and I believe in taking notice of little things. There wasn't any cigar ash or anything of that sort left behind, was there?" he asked wistfully.
    "I'm afraid not," said the editor gravely.
    "Pity," said the detective, and wrapping up the 'infernal machine' and its appurtenances, he took his departure.
    Afterwards the editor informed Welby that the disciple of Holmes had spent half an hour with a magnifying glass examining the floor.
    "He found half a sovereign that I lost weeks ago, so it's really an ill wind----"
    All that evening nobody but Welby and the chief knew what had happened in the editor's room. There was some rumour in the sub-editor's department that a small accident had occurred in the sanctum.
    "Chief busted a fuse in his room and got a devil of a fright," said the man who attended to the Shipping List.
    "Dear me," said the weather expert, looking up from his chart, "do you know something like that happened to me: the other night----"
    The chief had directed a few firm words to the detective before his departure.
    "Only you and myself know anything about this occurrence," said the editor, "so if it gets out I shall know it comes from Scotland Yard."
    "You may be sure nothing will come from us," was the detective's reply: "we've got into too much hot water already."
    "That's good," said the editor, and 'that's good' sounded like a threat.
    So that Welby and the chief kept the matter a. secret till half an hour before the paper went to press.
    This may seem to the