The Air Pirate
you, sir, when Miss Shepherd was acting there."
"Ah! I see you haven't wasted your time." I smiled inwardly at
Thumbwood's idea of helping me.
"No, Sir John. I've learned a lot of funny little things, just trifles,
so to say, but they may prove useful later on. There's one thing you
ought to know at once. Them theatricals have been talking, and it's all
over town that Miss Shepherd travelled down to Plymouth with you. It's
certain to be in the papers this afternoon, if it ain't already. There's
been half a dozen reporters buzzing round the theatre this morning."
I ground my teeth with anger, but only for a moment. Of course, the
thing was inevitable. There was only one thing to do.
I took up the telephone on the writing-table and got put on to the
_Evening Wire_. "I am Sir John Custance," I said to the editor. "I hear
that there is a good deal of talk going about London in respect of Miss
Constance Shepherd and myself. To avoid the least misconception, I
authorize you to state, in your next edition, that Miss Shepherd and I
were engaged to be married. I'll send my servant down to your office at
once, with a note confirming this conversation."
It was the only way, much as I hated it, to stop malicious gossip, and I
scribbled a chit to the editor.
"Get into a taxi and take that at once," I said to Thumbwood. As I gave
him the letter, there was a ring at the front-door bell.
The little man went out and I heard voices, one harsh and deep, that
seemed familiar.
"Who is it?" I asked as Charles returned. "I can't see anyone...."
"Wouldn't take any denial, sir. It's the American gentleman who picked
up Captain Pring after the attack on the _Albatros_. Says he must see
you."
"Mr. Van Adams?"
"Yes, Sir John."
"Show him in."
A moment afterwards I was shaking hands with the thickset man whose jaw
was like a pike's and whose eyes resembled animated steel. Thumbwood
went off with the letter. I heard the front door close after him.
Now I don't suppose at that moment I would have seen any other man in
London unconnected with my office at Whitehall. I didn't want to see the
millionaire, but directly he was inside the room my irritation vanished.
He had meant to see me. He had now accomplished his end, and I had a
firm conviction that sentries with fixed bayonets wouldn't have kept him
out.
He sat down quietly in the chair I indicated, and took a cigar with
great deliberation. I was not in the least impatient. I knew now that I
was glad that he had come, and waited for him to begin. When he did
speak the harsh voice was considerably modified, and no one whatever
could have said that he was an American.
"Any success I may have made in life," he said without preliminary, "has
come from the faculty of judging men. I started, as a youth, with this
power in a more than ordinary degree. I've been developing it ever
since."
He puffed thoughtfully at his cigar. He had said this with calm
determination, not in the least as if he were speaking of himself, but
merely as a man stating a fact which would be useful a little later on.
For my part I said nothing. I felt as though I was playing a sort of
decorous game with rigid rules. To speak then would be to revoke!
"... And, though the ordinary man does not like to hear such a
statement, I have a pretty good idea of you, Sir John. You're not an
ordinary man. That's why I'm here. I'll put it in two words. I want to
help you. I _can_ help you. It is for you to say if you want me."
Now there could only be one answer to a question like that. The man in
my arm-chair was one of the most powerful men on earth. Moreover, his
reputation stood high. He was no financial pirate. The whole world
trusted him.
"I answer that, Mr. Van Adams, with a single word: Thank you."
He nodded as if pleased. "Quite!" he said, and then, half turning in his
chair, "of course I don't ask you to tell me any official secrets...."
I laughed at that. The Government would have let this man know all there
was to be known upon his simple request.
He saw that I understood. "There are none for one thing," I told him.
"You know exactly as much as my department knows, as I told the Home
Secretary this morning. There are no developments, except, of course,
the protective measures we and the States are taking. The one thing I
_can_ tell you, and which is in strict confidence, is that I have
arranged for my official duties to be carried on by my assistant for a
month. From this afternoon I am absolutely free to do what I like and go
where I like. No one will know of this but my confidential servant. I
intend to devote this evening to mapping out a plan of campaign."
"That's good, Sir John. That is just what I wanted to hear. Let me
explain my motives. They are not complicated. One is that, as one of the
chief money-brokers of the world, I naturally want to prevent any
financial panic. Next, I am a bit of a sportsman in my way. I like
hunting things down. This pursuit appeals to me a good deal. And,
last--when I was five-and-thirty, a desperate gang of crooks in San
Francisco kidnapped my little daughter Pearl--she that is Duchess of
Shropshire now--and held her up to ransom. It was before you took
notice, for I'm close on seventy, but the episode created some
considerable stir at the time. I can pretty well guess what you are
going through now."
As he looked at me his eyes were no longer like living steel, nor his
jaw like a pike's.
So he also knew! I mumbled something or other.
"Quite," he answered quickly, and then went on: "In thinking over
various ways in which I could be of use I have come to a certain
conclusion. Money, I suppose, won't help you--though, of course, any sum
is available?"
"I have the Government behind me, and I myself am not poor, thank you."
"It is as I thought. In England I myself can do nothing _personally_
that others cannot do as well. In America I have every sort of
influence...."
I looked him in the face. "I am not going to trouble about America in
the very least."
"Quite! I see what you mean. And I am absolutely of your opinion. Now
I'll come to what I _can_ do for you."
He rose slowly from his chair and came up to me. When he spoke he had
dropped his voice a full tone.
"I must let you into one or two little secrets about myself," he said.
"In the first place, a man so rich as I am does not become so without
making powerful and unscrupulous enemies. Also, American methods are
direct. It will probably surprise you to hear that my life has been
attempted twelve or fifteen times, but that is the case. Some of the
methods were diabolically ingenious, too! However, I stand here to-day,
quite unharmed and quite safe. Why? I'll tell you.
"Quite early in my successful career I saw what would happen. I watched
other men assassinated, and was determined that it shouldn't happen to
me. How was it to be avoided? I thought that point out very carefully,
and came to a conclusion. I must find, and then attach to my person,
someone of extraordinary intelligence, cunning, skill and personal
prowess. My ambitions ran high. I wanted someone who would devote his
whole life to my service, a familiar spirit, no less! It took me three
years of steady work to find that familiar spirit--to discover the exact
combination of qualities I required. But a multi-millionaire is the
Magician of to-day, and I have a Genie as clever and infallible as any
out of the old 'Arabian Nights.' I pay him the salary of a cinema star,
and I say, meaning every word of it, that there isn't another like him
in the world. Do you think this tall talk, Sir John?"
It was certainly amazing, but I could not but believe him.
"You startle and you interest me deeply," I replied. "You are to be
congratulated."
"I am--on a unique human possession. Well, you can't have failed to see
what I'm driving at. I will lend you this man, place his services
entirely at your disposal, for a month!"
For a moment or two I was silent. I believed every word that Van Adams
said, and I was not hesitating--only just letting the offer, and what it
meant, sink into my mind. It became plain. It was like the offer of a
rope-ladder to a man in prison, a light and a pickaxe to an entombed
miner.
"It is the most generous offer I've ever heard of, Mr. Van Adams. I
can't express my thanks. You really mean this?"
"I do. And as an ounce of proof is worth a ton of talk--allow me to
introduce you to Mr. Danjuro!"
He turned round as he spoke and I with him. Then I gave a cry of
astonishment, which I could not have kept back to save my life.
Standing some yard or so away was a little Japanese gentleman, not much
more than five feet high. He wore gold pince-nez, a neat blue lounge
suit and brown boots. There was nothing noticeable about him in any way,
except an unusually fine cranial development--a massive forehead and a
great space between the corners of the dark eyes and the ears.
"Good heavens, how did he get here?" I said.
Van Adams laughed. "I daresay he'll tell you; I don't know," he
answered. "I just told him to be here. I wanted to give you an object
lesson, in fact. Now, Mr. Danjuro knows all that I know. You can trust
him absolutely. He knows what is in front of him, and he knows where to
find me when I'm wanted. Now I'll leave you together and say
good-afternoon."
He was gone almost before I could thank him.
CHAPTER VI
MR. DANJURO, THINKING MACHINE, EXPLAINS HIMSELF
"Won't you sit down?" I said foolishly. The little Japanese bowed
politely and did so.
I was at a loss what to say. My mind was in a whirl. I wanted to laugh,
to call Van Adams back, but my dominating sensation was one of supreme
annoyance. So this natty, commonplace little Asiatic was the
millionaire's "familiar spirit"! He was unique, was he! I cursed myself
for several kinds of fool to have saddled myself with this amazing
stranger at the beginning of my work. At any rate, I reflected
irritably, as I sat down opposite, I could easily send him off on some
wild-goose chase or another....
Yes! I was never more annoyed in my life, and my annoyance lasted for
exactly sixty seconds. Without the slightest embarrassment of any sort,
and with no preliminaries at all, Mr. Danjuro plunged into business. His
voice was clear and low. He had no accent of any kind, though his
English was a trifle pedantic and scholarly. He spoke as impersonally as
a gramophone.
"... I am entirely with you, Sir John, in your opinion that it is not in
the United States of America, but here--in England--that we shall solve
the mystery surrounding this dark business."
"But I never said ..."
He smiled faintly, almost wearily. "And since I have the great honour to
be associated with you, I trust you will allow me to suggest a plan of
campaign."
"I was going to try and think one out to-night."
"It is a privilege to assist. I have come in contact with many crafty
and malignant criminals during the last thirty years, but here one
detects a master. It will be a pleasure indeed to hunt him down. Have I
your honourable permission to smoke?"
With one hand he produced a square of rice paper and a pinch of tobacco
from his pocket, and rolled a cigarette on his knee like a conjuring
trick. He had not raised his voice, but a sudden gleam came into the
oblique black eyes which suggested the deep but hidden ferocity of his
race.
He resumed. "From all I have gathered, and I have talked much with
Captain Pring, Mr. Rickaby and the passengers of the _Albatros_, we
have to look for a man who is (1) an aviator in the first rank; (2) an
inventor and mechanical genius, or able to command the services of such;
(3) a person of some wealth or able to procure money."