“Because I thought it wouldn’t be valuable to me.”
“You wrote Criminals I Have Caught.”
“How—how do you know that?” Wimp was startling him today with a vengeance.
“Your style, my dear Mr. Cantercot. The unique noble style.”
“Yes, I was afraid it would betray me,” said Denzil. “And since you know, I may tell you that Grodman’s a mean curmudgeon. What does he want with all that money and those houses—a man with no sense of the Beautiful? He’d have taken my information, and given me more kicks than ha’pence for it, so to speak.”
“Yes, he is a shrewd man after all. I don’t see anything valuable in your evidence against Mortlake.”
“No!” said Denzil in a disappointed tone, and fearing he was going to be robbed. “Not when Mortlake was already jealous of Mr. Constant, who was a sort of rival organizer, unpaid! A kind of blackleg doing the work cheaper—nay, for nothing.”
“Did Mortlake tell you he was jealous?” said Wimp, a shade of sarcastic contempt piercing through his tones.
“Oh, yes! He said to me, ‘That man will work mischief. I don’t like your kid-glove philanthropists meddling in matters they don’t understand.’ ”
“Those were his very words?”
“His ipsissima verba.”
“Very well. I have your address in my files. Here is a sovereign for you.”
“Only one sovereign! It’s not the least use to me.”
“Very well. It’s of great use to me. I have a wife to keep.”
“I haven’t,” said Denzil with a sickly smile, “so perhaps I can manage on it after all.” He took his hat and the sovereign.
Outside the door he met a rather pretty servant just bringing in some tea to her master. He nearly upset her tray at sight of her. She seemed more amused at the rencontre than he.
“Good afternoon, dear,” she said coquettishly. “You might let me have that sovereign. I do so want a new Sunday bonnet.”
Denzil gave her the sovereign, and slammed the hall door viciously when he got to the bottom of the stairs. He seemed to be walking arm-in-arm with the long arm of coincidence. Wimp did not hear the duologue. He was already busy on his evening’s report to headquarters. The next day Denzil had a bodyguard wherever he went. It might have gratified his vanity had he known it. But tonight he was yet unattended, so no one noted that he went to 46 Glover Street, after the early Crowl supper. He could not help going. He wanted to get another sovereign. He also itched to taunt Grodman. Not succeeding in the former object, he felt the road open for the second.
“Do you still hope to discover the Bow murderer?” he asked the old bloodhound.
“I can lay my hand on him now,” Grodman announced curtly.
Denzil hitched his chair back involuntarily. He found conversation with detectives as lively as playing at skittles with bombshells. They got on his nerves terribly, these undemonstrative gentlemen with no sense of the Beautiful.
“But why don’t you give him up to justice?” he murmured.
“Ah—it has to be proved yet. But it is only a matter of time.”
“Oh!” said Denzil, “and shall I write the story for you?”
“No. You will not live long enough.”
Denzil turned white. “Nonsense! I am years younger than you,” he gasped.
“Yes,” said Grodman, “but you drink so much.”
VII
When Wimp invited Grodman to eat his Christmas plum-pudding at King’s Cross Grodman was only a little surprised. The two men were always overwhelmingly cordial when they met, in order to disguise their mutual detestation. When people really like each other, they make no concealment of their mutual contempt. In his letter to Grodman, Wimp said that he thought it would be nicer for him to keep Christmas in company than in solitary state. There seems to be a general prejudice in favor of Christmas numbers, and Grodman yielded to it. Besides, he thought that a peep at the Wimp domestic interior would be as good as a pantomime. He quite enjoyed the fun that was coming, for he knew that Wimp had not invited him out of mere “peace and goodwill.”
There was only one other guest at the festive board. This was Wimp’s wife’s mother’s mother, a lady of sweet seventy. Only a minority of mankind can obtain a grandmother-in-law by marrying, but Wimp was not unduly conceited. The old lady suffered from delusions. One of them was that she was a centenarian. She dressed for the part. It is extraordinary what pains ladies will take to conceal their age. Another of Wimp’s grandmother-in-law’s delusions was that Wimp had married to get her into the family. Not to frustrate his design, she always gave him her company on high-days and holidays. Wilfred Wimp—the little boy who stole the jam—was in great form at the Christmas dinner. The only drawback to his enjoyment was that its sweets needed no stealing. His mother presided over the platters, and thought how much cleverer Grodman was than her husband. When the pretty servant who waited on them was momentarily out of the room, Grodman had remarked that she seemed very inquisitive. This coincided with Mrs. Wimp’s own convictions, though Mr. Wimp could never be brought to see anything unsatisfactory or suspicious about the girl, not even though there were faults in spelling in the “character” with which her last mistress had supplied her.
It was true that the puss had pricked up her ears when Denzil Cantercot’s name was mentioned. Grodman saw it and watched her, and fooled Wimp to the top of his bent. It was, of course, Wimp who introduced the poet’s name, and he did it so casually that Grodman perceived at once that he wished to pump him. The idea that the rival bloodhound should come to him for confirmation of suspicions against his own pet jackal was too funny. It was almost as funny to Grodman that evidence of some sort should be obviously lying to hand in the bosom of Wimp’s handmaiden; so obviously that Wimp could not see it.
