Speaker 1: Chapter twenty five of The Double by Edgar Wallace. This
Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Read by Atolsharma, Winnipeg, Canada,
Speaker 1: Chapter twenty five. He fell back in his chair, staring
Speaker 1: at the printed page. Interruption came from a totally unexpected source.
Speaker 1: The door was pushed open violently, and Tommy wheeled flung in.
Speaker 1: His hair was disheveled, his face splashed with mud, and
Speaker 1: the state of his leather coat and his sodden gloves
Speaker 1: suggested he had come by road and in some hurry
Speaker 1: seen Mary. His voice was shrill with anxiety, and then,
Speaker 1: without waiting for a reply, he went on, popped off
Speaker 1: this afternoon, old boy, the whole blooming shoot Mary Cornfort
Speaker 1: supposed to be dying, old boy, Henry, everybody, no, not everybody.
Speaker 1: The bath chairs left behind. They didn't even take that
Speaker 1: most extraordinary thing. Old boy, not left a word, just
Speaker 1: popped off. Must have gone this morning, and me walking
Speaker 1: up and down the front of the house composing poetry,
Speaker 1: Old boy, I tell you it's too ghastly for words.
Speaker 1: He paused only to take breath, evidently not to listen,
Speaker 1: because before Dick could open his mouth to speak, the
Speaker 1: flow of words continued. I'm rattled, old boy, he said.
Speaker 1: Suppose this beastly fellow who threw the whiz bang has
Speaker 1: got some fearful grudge against Mary. I stopped and strea
Speaker 1: them to get a newspaper, and got pinched by a
Speaker 1: copper for having no lights. But I simply had to
Speaker 1: read it. I saw a bill with local women found
Speaker 1: murdered in west End. Might have been her, Old boy,
Speaker 1: can't you do anything, Dickie, he demanded wildly. You're the police,
Speaker 1: you're a pal. I'd searched the town for her. They
Speaker 1: left in a motor car at twelve o'clock. Henry, Mary,
Speaker 1: the night nurse, and the poor old invalid. He's practically finished,
Speaker 1: so it doesn't matter about him, and not so much
Speaker 1: as a sign of her. Old boy, all went off together,
Speaker 1: left the bath chair. If you'll only shut up, said dick,
Speaker 1: I'll tell you I've seen Mary. Tommy's eyes bulged here
Speaker 1: in London, he screeched, Here in London, and Henry, if
Speaker 1: that's any comfort to you, phew. Tommy mopped his steaming
Speaker 1: brow and sat down, heavily ring for min's, old boy.
Speaker 1: We'll have a bottle on that she's a naughty, naughty girl.
Speaker 1: I'm terribly vexed with her. Where are they staying, Dickie?
Speaker 1: Dick could offer no information on this subject, but he
Speaker 1: decided that he had better tell Tommy that the girl
Speaker 1: was coming there that night. It might be very embarrassing
Speaker 1: if he did not, especially as Tommy evidently intended sleeping there.
Speaker 1: But before he could tell him, Tommy relieved him in
Speaker 1: his dilemma. Are you likely to hear from her? Will
Speaker 1: you ring me up? If you do? Where are you going?
Speaker 1: Asked Dick. I was going nowhere. I was simply going
Speaker 1: to stay here, old boy, and cry myself to sleep.
Speaker 1: But if she's alive, that's all I want to know.
Speaker 1: I'm toddling down to a dear little place in Surrey.
Speaker 1: You know. He tapped his nose with a forefinger, slyly.
Speaker 1: I don't know, said Dick wearily, unless that gesture means
Speaker 1: that you're going to have your nose reshaped. Honeymoon, old boy.
Speaker 1: Everything arranged for next week. Next week. Dick almost shouted
Speaker 1: the words you're mad. I mean you said it was
Speaker 1: September next week, said Tommy, with great calmness. We fixed
Speaker 1: it up the night before last, Dick quaked inwardly. He
Speaker 1: was like a man who was being carried across Niagara
Speaker 1: on a tight rope by an expert walker. The position
Speaker 1: might be entirely without peril to himself. On the other hand,
Speaker 1: give me your telephone number, he said, with extraordinary sang foa.
Speaker 1: In the circumstances, Tommy took off his wet glove, poised
Speaker 1: a pencil over the tablecloth, but wrote nothing. You know
Speaker 1: what your news is meant to me, old boy. I've
Speaker 1: been like a raving lunatic suicide, going abroad, shooting lions.
Speaker 1: I thought of everything. He disappeared as rapidly as he
Speaker 1: had arrived, and Dick had a vision of a motor
Speaker 1: car moving at an unlawful rate down the crowded streets.
Speaker 1: Not until too late did he realize that he had
Speaker 1: left no address. As soon as it got dark, Dick
Speaker 1: went up to his room, and one foot was thrown
Speaker 1: across the balcony's edge when he remembered his promise to
Speaker 1: the girl. Yet, never since he had come into the
Speaker 1: case did he have such an overpowering desire to inspect
Speaker 1: mister Deryck's empty house. He contented himself by examining with
Speaker 1: some curiosity the unlovely facade. Unlovely it was, with its
Speaker 1: glazed brick, an eyesore to the neighborhood. The stone balconies
Speaker 1: which jutted out looked ugly and incongruous. The windows, as
Speaker 1: he saw for the first time, were out of proportion,
Speaker 1: long and narrow, and badly placed. It was curious that
Speaker 1: he had never noticed that fact before he looked down
Speaker 1: below on the drawing room floor. The balcony was wider
Speaker 1: than that which was on his own level. Even the
Speaker 1: dusk and the kindly lights of the streets did little
Speaker 1: deveil the distressing ugliness of the house. No great harm
Speaker 1: would come if Derec carried out his threat and rased
Speaker 1: this monstrosity to the ground. At least he would employ
Speaker 1: a modern architect, and from this drab and dowdy phoenix
Speaker 1: might well rise a building creditable to the aristocratic neighborhood.
Speaker 1: Derec was a queer sort of fellow, he mused. Suddenly
Speaker 1: he stiffened. The French windows of the office room were open,
Speaker 1: and from where he stood he had caught in the
Speaker 1: glass the momentary reflection of a lamp flash. Derec had
Speaker 1: not had time to finish his dinner. Besides, he would
Speaker 1: have called on his way back, as he had promised.
Speaker 1: He had his foot raised to the parapet, and again
Speaker 1: he remembered the urgent warning of Mary Dane, who could
Speaker 1: have got into the house, and how not up those
Speaker 1: well hidden stairs. The window was moving, and he stepped
Speaker 1: back to the shelter of his room, watching along the edge.
Speaker 1: And then he saw a gloved hand come round the
Speaker 1: frame of the half window, and the head followed. In
Speaker 1: the dark, the face would have been indistinguishable, but there
Speaker 1: was sufficient light from the street below to show the
Speaker 1: mask that envelope not only the face but the head
Speaker 1: of the stranger, and to reveal the awkwardly cut holes
Speaker 1: through which two eyes were glaring. He waited a second
Speaker 1: and then stepped out. I want you, he said. He
Speaker 1: saw a hand snap up, and he dropped like a
Speaker 1: stone to the inadequate cover of the balcony. As he
Speaker 1: did so, something whizzed through his hair. He saw the flash,
Speaker 1: but heard no other sound than the stunning thud of
Speaker 1: the explosive. The unknown had him at his mercy, did
Speaker 1: he but realize, and had he the courage for the
Speaker 1: narrow stone pillars behind which the detective was crouching afforded
Speaker 1: no vital cover. But after the first shot, the masked
Speaker 1: man spun round and vanished through the open window. Again.
Speaker 1: Dick's leg was flung across the parapet. Again, the memory
Speaker 1: of Mary Dane called him back. He went back to
Speaker 1: his room, took the first flight of stairs at a leap,
Speaker 1: would have taken the second, but mins was in his way.
Speaker 1: The butler. He pushed aside, dashed down the remaining stairs
Speaker 1: and flung open the door. Mister Derrick was standing on
Speaker 1: the doorstep, his hand at the bell, and Dick, in
Speaker 1: his hurry, almost sent him flying down the three steps
Speaker 1: that led from the sidewalk to the house. For the
Speaker 1: love of Heaven, what's wrong, the detective did not reply.
Speaker 1: He went to Derreck's door and tried it. It was locked.
Speaker 1: Somebody in there, asked Derrec quickly. The two doors were
Speaker 1: side by side. Only a low balustrade separated the st
Speaker 1: his own platforms that formed the top step. Come over here,
Speaker 1: said Dick, and Derec obeyed with a wondering shake of
Speaker 1: his head. Try that door. What is the idea, asked Dereck,
Speaker 1: as he pushed, Do you want to get in? I've
Speaker 1: got the key. He searched in his pocket and presently
Speaker 1: found what he sought. No, I don't want to go in.
Speaker 1: Dick was looking at the broad step. It had been
Speaker 1: raining and the streets were wet, but the two porticos
Speaker 1: in the houses themselves were on the lee side of
Speaker 1: the rainstorm, and they were bone dry. Do you notice anything?
Speaker 1: Derec shook his head. What has happened, he asked. There
Speaker 1: was a note of petulance in his voice. I'm getting
Speaker 1: rather tired of all these mysteries. No mystery about it.
Speaker 1: A masked gentleman shot at me from your balcony upstairs.
Speaker 1: Good God. And then Derec looked round. Two men were
Speaker 1: standing on the edge of the pavement, watching curiously. Who
Speaker 1: are those fellows? He asked. You needn't bother about those,
Speaker 1: said Dick, sharply. They're Scotland yard men. He beckoned one
Speaker 1: of them. Did you see anything, No, sir, I thought
Speaker 1: I saw a flash from the balcony. Derec had turned
Speaker 1: the key and thrown the door open wide. The hall
Speaker 1: was in complete darkness, and for this, he admitted he
Speaker 1: was responsible. I didn't realize it got dark, so soon
Speaker 1: will you come in? Dick signaled the two men. These
Speaker 1: officers will go up with you, he said, and heard
Speaker 1: Deryck's laugh. Are you afraid? He mantered? Terribly, said the detective.
Speaker 1: He waited while the search was conducted, and after a
Speaker 1: time one of the men came out with something black
Speaker 1: in his hand. Here is the mask, sir. It looks
Speaker 1: as if it was cut from a woman's stocking. We
Speaker 1: found it on the stairs. Did you find the gun, no, sir,
Speaker 1: But we found a silencer that was in what you
Speaker 1: call the office room. Dick examined it casually and slipped
Speaker 1: it into his pocket. No sign of any man, none, whatever.
Speaker 1: Dick's smile was not pleasant. I should have been very
Speaker 1: much surprised if there was, he said, for the doorstep
Speaker 1: had told him all that he wanted to know. End
Speaker 1: of Chapter twenty five.