Edgar Wallace

“ The old print above the mantelpiece must have been worth a working-man’s annual income. The small gate-legged table in the centre of the felt-covered floor was indubitably Jacobean, and the chairs were Sheraton, as also was the sideboard. Though the periods may not have harmonized, there is harmony enough in great age. A bright fire was burning in the grate, for the night was bitterly cold. Fellowe stopped before the mantelpiece to examine two letters which stood awaiting him, replaced them from where he had taken them, and passed through the folding doors of the room into a tiny bedroom. ”

“ Sergeant Gurden murmured sympathetically.
“In our business, sergeant,” the aggrieved colonel went on, “it frequently happens that disappointed people—people who have not made the profits which they anticipated—bring extraordinary accusations against those responsible for the conduct of those concerns in which their money is invested. I had a letter to-day”—he shrugged his shoulders—“accusing me—me!—of running a bucket-shop.” ”

“ The sergeant took the hand and shook it warmly. “I have come to apologize to you. Colonel Black,” he said. “I have severely reprimanded Police-Constable Fellowe.”
Black waved his hand deprecatingly. “I do not wish to get any member of your admirable force into trouble,” he said, “but really this man’s prying into my business is inexcusable and humiliating.”
The sergeant nodded. “I can well understand your annoyance, sir,” he said, “but you will understand that these young constables are always a little over-zealous, and when a man is that way he is inclined to overdo it a little.” ”

“ The sergeant thought it very likely, and murmured to the effect.
“There is always a possibility that malignity will attach itself to the famous,” the colonel continued, “and because I know that you would be one of the first to hear such slander, and that you would moreover afford me an opportunity—a private opportunity—of combating such slander, that I feel such security. God bless you, sergeant!” He patted the other’s shoulder, and Gurden was genuinely affected. ”

“ This, at any rate, was the humble beginnings of a firm which was destined to grow to important proportions. Gram went out of the business—was never in it, if the truth be told. One doubts if he ever breathed the breath of life—and Black grew in prosperity. His was a name to conjure with in certain circles. In others it was never mentioned. The financial lords of the City—the Farings, the Wertheiners, the Scott-Teasons—had no official knowledge of his existence. ”

“ He had long since come to realize that hope of promotion, first to an inspectorship, and eventually to that bright star which lures every policeman onward, and which is equivalent to the baton popularly supposed to be in every soldier’s knapsack, a superintendentship, was not for him. ”

“ It must be said of Colonel Black that he had been most kind. Cupidity takes a lenient view of its benefactor’s morals, and though Sergeant Gurden was not the kind of man willingly to help the lawless, no person could say that an outside broker, undetected of fraud, was anything but a desirable member of society. ”

“ For answer, Black held up the feather for the man to smell.
“I can smell nothing,” said Fanks. Tilting the end quickly downwards. Black drew it across the lips of the other. “Here... ” cried Fanks, and went limply to the ground.
“Constable Fellowe!”
Frank Fellowe was leaving the charge-room when he heard the snappy tones of the desk-sergeant calling him.
“Yes, sergeant?” he said, with a note of inquiry in his voice. He knew that there was something unpleasant coming. Sergeant Gurden seldom took any opportunity of speaking to him, except in admonishment. ”

“ Property owners in Somers Town, and especially the owners of small cottages standing on fairly valuable ground, do not as a rule make such renovations as Fellowe required. The average landlord, for instance, would not have built the spacious bathroom which the cottage boasted, but then Fellowe’s landlord was no ordinary man. ”