“I was watching three interesting burglars at work,” he said, “as I have watched them not once but many times. You see, I am specially gifted in one respect. Nature intended me to be a burglar, but education and breed and a certain lawfulness of character prohibited that course. I am a dilettante: I do not commit crime, but I am monstrously interested in it. I seek,” he said slowly, “to discover what fascination crime has over the normal mind; also I have an especial reason for checking the amount these men collect.”
Her puzzled frown hurt him; he did not want to bother her, but she knew so much now that he must tell her more.
He had thought it would have been possible to have hidden everything from her, but people cannot live together in the same house and be interested in one another’s comings and goings without some of their cherished secrets being revealed.
“What I cannot understand—” she said slowly and was at a loss for an introduction to this delicate subject.
“What cannot you understand?” he asked.
“I cannot understand why you suddenly dropped all your normal pleasures, why you left the Foreign Office, why you gave up music, and why, above all things, that this change in your life should have come about immediately after the playing of the ‘Melody in F.’ ”
He was silent for a moment, and when he spoke his voice was low and troubled.
“You are not exactly right,” he said. “I had begun my observations into the ways of the criminal before that tune was played.” He paused. “I admit that I had some fear in my mind that sooner or later the ‘Melody in F’ would be played under my window, and I was making a halfhearted preparation against the evil day. That is all I can tell you,” he said.
“Tell me this,” she asked as he rose, “if I had loved you, and had been all that you desired, would you have adopted this course?”
He thought awhile. “I cannot tell you,” he said at length; “possibly I should, perhaps I should not. Yes,” he said, nodding his head, “I should have done what I am doing now, only it would have been harder to do if you had loved me. As it is—” he shrugged his shoulders.
He went out soon after, and she found the paper he had been reading, and without difficulty discovered the advertisement.
Then he was the Hatton Garden intruder, and what he had said was true. He had observed these people, and they had known they were being observed.
With a whirling brain she sat down to piece together the threads of mystery. She was no nearer a solution when she had finished, from sheer exhaustion, than when she had begun.
Gilbert had not intended spending the night away from his house. He realised that his wife would worry, and that she would have a genuine grievance; apart from which he was, in a sense, domesticated, and if the life he was living was an unusual one, it had its charm and its attraction.
The knowledge that he would meet her every morning, speak to her during the day, and that he had in her a growing friend was particularly pleasing to him.
He had gone to a little office that he rented over a shop in Cheapside, an office which his work in the City had made necessary.
He unlocked the door of the tiny room, which was situated on the third floor, and entered, closing the door behind him. There were one or two letters which had come to him in the capacity in which he appeared as the tenant of the office. They were mainly business communications, and required little or no attention.
He sat down at his desk to write a note; he thought he might be late that night, and wanted to explain his absence. His wife occupied a definite place in his life, and though she exercised no rights over his movements, yet could quite reasonably expect to be informed of his immediate plans.
He had scarcely put pen to paper when a knock came to the door.
“Come in,” said Gilbert in some surprise.
It was not customary for people to call upon him here. He expected to see a wandering canvasser in search of an order, but the man that came in was nothing so commonplace. Gilbert knew him as a Mr. Wallis, an affable and a pleasant man.
“Sit down, will you?” he said, without a muscle of his face wrong.
“I want to see you, Mr. Standerton,” said Wallis, and made no attempt to seat himself. “Would you care to come to my office?”
“I can see you here, I think,” said Gilbert calmly.
“I prefer to see you in my office,” said the man, “we are less liable to interruption. You are not afraid to come, I suppose?” he said with the hint of a smile.
“I am not to be piqued into coming, at any rate,” smiled Gilbert; “but since this is not a very expansive office, nor conducive to expansive thought, I will go with you. I presume you intend taking me into your confidence?”
He looked at the other man strangely and Wallis nodded.
The two men left the office together, and Gilbert wondered exactly what proposition the other would put to him.
Ten minutes later they were in the St. Bride Street store, that excellent Safe Agency whose business apparently was increasing by leaps and bounds.
Gilbert Standerton looked round. The manager was there, a model of respectability. He bowed politely to Wallis, and was somewhat surprised to see him perhaps, for the proprietor of the St. Bride’s Safe Agency was a rare visitor.
“My office, I think?” suggested Wallis.
He closed the door behind them.
“Now exactly what do you want?” asked Gilbert.
“Will you have a cigar?” Mr. Wallis pushed the box towards him.
Gilbert smiled.
“You need not be scared of them,” said Wallis with a twinkle in his eye. “There is nothing dopey or wrong with these, they are my own special brand.”
“I
