"That's solid gold, isn't it?" he asked as he unfastened the clasp.
"You know."
"Solid gold it is, misterand no error," assented Melky. "Now, what's inside? It ain't no blooming account-book, I'll bet!"
Lauriston opened the volume, to reveal leaves of old vellum, covered with beautiful fine writing. He had sufficient knowledge of foreign languages to know what he was looking at.
"That's Spanish!" he said. "An old Spanish manuscriptand I should say it's worth a rare lot of money. How could it have come here?"
Melky took the old volume out of Lauriston's hands, and put it away in a corner cupboard.
"Ah, just so, mister!" he said. "But we'll keep that question to ourselvesfor awhile. Don't you say nothing to the police about that there old bookI'll give Zillah the tip. More hangs round that than we know of yet. Now look here!there'll be the opening of the inquest tomorrow. You be careful! Take my tip and don't let 'em get more out of you than's necessary. I'll go along with you. I'm going to stop here tonightwatch-dog, you know. Mrs. Goldmark and another friend's going to be here as well, so Zillah'll have company. And I say, Zillah wants a word with youstop here, and I'll send her down."
Lauriston presently found himself alone with Zillah in the little parlour. She looked at him silently, with eyes full of anxiety: he suddenly realized that the anxiety was for himself.
"Don't!" he said, moving close to her and laying his hand on her arm. "I'm not afraid!"
Zillah lifted her large dark eyes to his.
"Those rings?" she said. "You'll be able to account for them? The police, oh, I'm so anxious about you!"
"The rings are mine!" he exclaimed. "It doesn't matter what the police say or think, or do, eitherat least, it shan't matter. Andyou're not to be anxious I've got a good friend coming from ScotlandMelky told you I'd had two lots of good news tonight, didn't he?"
A moment later Lauriston was in the streetconscious that, without a word spoken between them, he and Zillah had kissed each other. He went away with a feeling of exaltationand he only laughed when he saw a man detach himself from a group on the opposite side of the street and saunter slowly after him. Let the police shadow himwatch his lodgings all night, if they pleasedhe had something else to think of. And presently, not even troubling to look out of his window to see if there was a watcher there, he went to bed, to dream of Zillah's dark eyes.
But when morning came, and Lauriston realized that a fateful day was before him, his thoughts were not quite so rosy. He drew up his blindthere, certainly was a man pacing the opposite sidewalk. Evidently, he was not to escape surveillance; the official eye was on him! Supposing, before the day was out, the official hand was on him, too?
He turned from the window as he heard his newspaper thrust under his door. He had only one luxurya copy of the Times every morning. It was a three-penny Times in those days, but he had always managed to find his weekly eighteen pence for it. He picked it up now, and carelessly glanced at its front page as he was about to lay it aside. The next moment he was eagerly reading a prominent advertisement:
"Lost in a Holborn to Chapel Street Omnibus, about 4 o'clock yesterday afternoon, a Spanish manuscript, bound in old crimson morocco. Whoever has found the same will be most handsomely rewarded on bringing it to Spencer Levendale, Esq., M.P., 591, Sussex Square, W."
Lauriston read this twice overand putting the paper in his pocket, finished his dressing and went straight to the police-station.
CHAPTER SEVEN
THE MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT
Melky Rubinstein came out of the side-passage by Multenius's shop as Lauriston neared it; he, too, had a newspaper bulging from his coat pocket, and at sight of Lauriston he pulled it out and waved it excitedly.
"What'd I tell you, mister?" exclaimed Melky, as Lauriston joined him, the shadowing plain-clothes man in his rear. "D'ye see this?" He pointed to an advertisement in his own paper, which he had marked with blue pencil. "There y'are, Mr. Lauriston!that identical old book what's inside the parlouradvertised forhandsome reward, too, in the Daily Telegraph! Didn't I say we'd hear more of it?"
Lauriston pulled out the Times and indicated the Personal Column.
"It's there, too," he said. "This man, Mr. Levendale, is evidently very anxious to recover his book. And he's lost no time in advertising for it, either! Buthowever did it get to Multenius's?
"Mister!" said Melky, solemnly. "We'll have to speak to the policenow. There's going to be a fine clue in that there book. I didn't mean to say nothing to the police about it, just yet, but after this here advertisement, t'ain't no use keeping the thing to ourselves. Come on round to the police-station."
"That's just where I was going," replied Lauriston. "Let's get hold of Ayscough."
Ayscough was standing just inside the police-station when they went up the steps; he, too, had a newspaper in his hands, and at sight of them he beckoned them to follow him into an office in which two or three other police officials were talking. He led Lauriston and Melky aside.
"I say!" he said. "Here's a curious thing! That book we noticed on the table in Multenius's back room last nightthat finely bound bookit's advertised for in the Daily Mailhandsome reward offered."
"Yes, and in the Times, tooand in the Daily Telegraph," said Lauriston. "Here you arejust the same advertisement. It's very evident the owner's pretty keen about getting it back."
Ayscough glanced at the two newspapers, and then beckoned to a constable who was standing near the door.
"Jim!" he said, as the man came up. "Just slip across to the newsagent's over there and get me the News, the Chronicle, the Standard, the Morning Post. If the owner's as keen as all that," he added, turning back to Lauriston, "he'll have put that advertisement in all the morning papers, and I'd like to make sure. What's known about that book at the shop?" he asked, glancing at Melky. "Does your cousin know anything?"
Melky's face assumed its most solemn expression.
"Mister!" he said earnestly. "There ain't nothing known at the shop about that there book, except this here. It wasn't there when my cousin Zillah left the old man alone at a quarter to five yesterday afternoon. It was there when this here gentleman found the old man. But it hadn't been pledged, nor yet sold, Mr. AyscoughThere'd ha' been an entry in the books if it had been taken in pawn, or bought across the counterand there's no entry. Now thenwho'd left it there?"
Another official had come up to the groupone of the men who had questioned Lauriston the night before. He turned to Lauriston as Melky finished.
"You don't know anything about this book?" he asked.
"Nothingexcept that Mr. Ayscough and I saw it lying on the table in the back room, close by that tray of rings," replied Lauriston. "I was attracted by the binding, of course."
"Where's the book, now?" asked the official.
"Put safe away, mister," replied Melky. "It's all right. But this here gentleman what's advertising for it"
Just then the constable returned with several newspapers and handed them over to Ayscough, who immediately laid them on a desk and turned to the advertisements, while the others crowded round him.
"In every one of 'em," exclaimed Ayscough, a moment later. "Word for word, in every morning newspaper in London! He must have sent that advertisement round to all the offices last night. And you'll notice," he added, turning to the other official, "that this Mr. Levendale only lost this book about four o'clock yesterday afternoon: therefore, it must have been taken to Multenius's shop between then and when we saw it there."
"Where's the book, now?" asked the official.
"Put safe away, mister," replied Melky. "It's all right. But this here gentleman what's advertising for it"
Just then the constable returned with several newspapers and handed them over to Ayscough, who immediately laid them on a desk and turned to the advertisements, while the others crowded round him.
"In every one of 'em," exclaimed Ayscough, a moment later. "Word for word, in every morning newspaper in London! He must have sent that advertisement round to all the offices last night. And you'll notice," he added, turning to the other official, "that this Mr. Levendale only lost this book about four o'clock yesterday afternoon: therefore, it must have been taken to Multenius's shop between then and when we saw it there."
"The old man may have found it in the 'bus," suggested a third police officer who had come up. "Looks as if he had."
"No, mister," said Melky firmly. "Mr. Multenius wasn't out of the shop at all yesterday afternoonI've made sure o' that fact from my cousin. He didn't find no book, gentlemen. It was brought there."
Ayscough picked up one of the papers and turned to Melky and Lauriston.
"Here!" he said. "We'll soon get some light on this. You two come with mewe'll step round to Mr. Levendale."
Ten minutes later, the three found themselves at the door of one of the biggest houses in Sussex Square; a moment more and they were being ushered within by a footman who looked at them with stolid curiosity. Lauriston gained a general impression of great wealth and luxury, soft carpets, fine pictures, all the belongings of a very rich man's housethen he and his companions were ushered into a large room, half study, half library, wherein, at a massive, handsomely carved desk, littered with books and papers, sat a middle-aged, keen-eyed man, who looked quietly up from his writing-pad at his visitors.
"S'elp me!one of ourselves!" whispered Melky Rubinstein at Lauriston's elbow. "Twig him!"
Lauriston was quick enough of comprehension and observation to know what Melky meant. Mr. Spencer Levendale was certainly a Jew. His dark hair and beard, his large dark eyes, the olive tint of his complexion, the lines of his nose and lips all betrayed his Semitic origin. He was evidently a man of position and of character; a quiet-mannered, self-possessed man of business, not given to wasting words. He glanced at the card which Ayscough had sent in, and turned to him with one word.
"Well?"
Ayscough went straight to the point.
"I called, Mr. Levendale, about that advertisement of yours which appears in all this morning's newspapers," he said. "I may as well tell you that that book of yours was found yesterday afternoon, under strange circumstances. Mr. Daniel Multenius, the jeweller and pawnbroker, of Praed Streetperhaps you know him, sir?"
"Not at all!" answered Levendale. "Never heard of him."
"He was well known in this part of the town," remarked Ayscough, quietly. "Well, sirMr. Multenius was found dead in his back-parlour yesterday afternoon, about five-thirty, by this young man, Mr. Lauriston, who happened to look in there, and I myself was on the spot a few minutes later. Your bookfor it's certainly the samewas lying on the table in the parlour. Now, this other young man, Mr. Rubinstein, is a relation of Mr. Multenius'sfrom enquiries he's made, Mr. Levendale, it's a fact that the book was neither pawned nor sold at Multenius's, though it must certainly have been brought there between the time you lost it and the time we found the old gentleman lying dead. Now, wethe policewant to know how it came there. And soI've come round to you. What can you tell me, sir?"
Levendale, who had listened to Ayscough with greatand, as it seemed to Lauriston, with very watchfulattention, pushed aside a letter he was writing, and looked from one to the other of his callers.
"Where is my book?" he asked.
"It's all rightall safe, mister," said Melky. "It's locked up in a cupboard, in the parlour where it was found, and the key's in my pocket."
Levendale turned to the detective, glancing again at Ayscough's card.
"All I can tell you, sergeant," he said, "ispracticallywhat I've told the public in my advertisement. Of course, I can supplement it a bit. The book is a very valuable oneyou see," he went on, with a careless wave of his hand towards his book-shelves. "I'm something of a collector of rare books. I bought this particular book yesterday afternoon, at a well-known dealer's in High Holborn. Soon after buying it, I got into a Cricklewood omnibus, which I left at Chapel Streetat the corner of Praed Street, as a matter of fact: I wished to make a call at the Great Western Hotel. It was not till I made that call that I found I'd left the book in the 'busI was thinking hard about a business matterI'd placed the book in a corner behind meand, of course, I'd forgotten it, valuable though it is. And so, later on, after telephoning to the omnibus people, who'd heard nothing, I sent that advertisement round to all the morning papers. I'm very glad to hear of itand I shall be pleased to reward you," he concluded, turning to Melky. "Handsomely!as I promised."
But Melky made no sign of gratitude or pleasure. He was eyeing the rich man before him in inquisitive fashion.
"Mister!" he said suddenly. "I'd like to ask you a question."
Levendale frowned a little.
"Well?" he asked brusquely. "What is it?"
"This here," replied Melky. "Was that there book wrapped up? Was it brown-papered, now, when you left it?"
It seemed to Lauriston that Levendale was somewhat taken aback. But if he was, it was only for a second: his answer, then, came promptly enough.
"No, it was not," he said. "I carried it away from the shop where I bought itjust as it was. Why do you ask?"
"It's a very fine-bound book," remarked Melky. "I should ha' thought, now, that if it had been left in a 'bus, the conductor would ha' noticed it, quick."
"So should I," said Levendale. "Anything else?" he added, glancing at Ayscough.
"Well, no, Mr. Levendale, thank you," replied the detective. "At least not just now. Butthe fact is, Mr. Multenius appears to have come to his death by violenceand I want to know if whoever took your book into his shop had anything to do with it."
"Ah!however, I can't tell you any more," said Levendale. "Please see that my book's taken great care of and returned to me, sergeant. Good-morning."
Outside, Ayscough consulted his watch and looked at his companions.
"Time we were going on to the inquest," he remarked. "Come onwe'll step round there together. You're both wanted, you know."
"I'll join you at the Coroner's court, Mr. Ayscough," said Melky. "I've got a few minutes' businessshan't be long."
He hurried away by a short cut to Praed Street and turned into Mrs. Goldmark's establishment.
Mrs. Goldmark herself was still ministering to Zillah, but the young woman whom Melky had seen the night before was in charge. Melky drew her aside.
"I say!" he said, with an air of great mystery. "A word with you, miss!private, between you and me. Can you tell me what like was that fellow what you believed to ha' lost that there cuff stud you showed me in Mrs. Goldmark's desk?you know?"
"Yes!" answered the young woman promptly. "Talldarkclean-shavedvery brownlooked like one of those Colonials that you see sometimeswore a slouch hat."
"Not a word to nobody!" warned Melky, more mysteriously than ever. And nodding his head with great solemnity, he left the eating-house, and hurried away to the Coroner's Court.
CHAPTER EIGHT
THE INQUEST
Until he and Ayscough walked into this particular one, Lauriston had never been in a Coroner's Court in his life. He knew very little about what went on in such places. He was aware that the office of Coroner is of exceeding antiquity; that when any person meets his or her death under suspicious circumstances an enquiry into those circumstances is held by a Coroner, who has a jury of twelve men to assist him in his duties: but what Coroner and jury did, what the procedure of these courts was, he did not know. It surprised him, accordingly, to find himself in a hall which had all the outward appearance of a court of justicea raised seat, on a sort of dais, for the Coroner; a box for the jury; a table for officials and legal gentlemen; a stand for witnesses, and accommodation for the general public. Clearly, it was evident that when any one died as poor old Daniel Multenius had died, the law took good care that everybody should know everything about it, and that whatever mystery there was should be thoroughly investigated.