“And you want to sell your knowledge?”
“Isn’t it reasonable, and natural? It’s my business to get knowledge, and I have to work hard to get it too. You wouldn’t have me give away the fruits of my work? It’s all I have to live by.”
“Your knowledge belongs to your firm.”
“No, sir, not in this case it doesn’t. All this work was done in my own time; it was my hobby, so to speak. Besides, my firm didn’t ask for the information and doesn’t want it.”
“What do you want for it?”
A momentary gleam appeared in Mr. Speedwell’s eyes, but he replied quietly and without emotion: “Two hundred pounds. Two hundred pounds and you shall hear all I know, and have my best help in whatever you want to do into the bargain. And in that case I won’t be able to tell the other parties where you are to be found, so being as their question was addressed to me and not to my firm.”
“Two hundred pounds!” Cheyne cried. “I’ll see you far enough first. Confound your impertinence!” His anger rose and he almost choked. “Don’t you imagine you are going to blackmail me! But I’ll tell you what I am going to do. I’m going right in now to the head of your firm to let him know the way you conduct his business. Two hundred pounds. I don’t think!”
He flung himself out of the room and called the girl in the outer office.
“I want to see the principal of the firm,” he shouted. “It’s important. Either Mr. Horton or Mr. Lavender will do. As soon as possible, please.”
The girl seemed half startled and half amused. “Who did you want to see?” she asked.
“Mr. Horton or Mr. Lavender,” Cheyne repeated firmly, fixing her with a wrathful stare.
“I—I’m afraid I don’t know where they are,” she stammered, the corners of her mouth twitching. Yes, she was laughing at him. Confound her impertinence also!
“You don’t know?” he shouted furiously. “When will they be in?”
The girl looked scared, then her amusement evidently overcame her apprehension and she giggled.
“Not today, I’m afraid,” she answered. “You see Mr. Horton has been dead over ten years and Mr. Lavender at least five.”
Cheyne glared at her as he asked thickly:
“Then who is the present principal?”
“Mr. Speedwell.”
“Damn,” said Cheyne: then as he looked at the smiling face of the pretty clerk he suddenly felt ashamed of himself.
“I’m sure I beg your pardon,” he said, and as he saw how neatly he had got his desserts he laughed ruefully himself. This confounded temper of his, he thought, was always putting him into the wrong. He was just determining for the thousandth time that he would be more careful not to give way to it in future when Mr. Speedwell’s melancholy voice fell on his ears.
“Ah, that is better, sir. Won’t you come back and let us resume our discussion?”
Cheyne reentered the private room.
“I’m sorry I lost my temper,” he said, “but really your proposition was so very—I may say, amazing, that it upset me. Of course you were not serious in what you said?”
Mr. Speedwell leaned forward and became the personification of suave amiability.
“I sell my wares in the best market, Mr. Cheyne,” he declared. “You couldn’t blame me for that; it’s only business. But I don’t want to drive a hard bargain with you. I would rather have an amicable settlement. I’m always one for peace and goodwill. An amicable settlement, sir; that’s what I suggest.” He beamed on Cheyne and rubbed his hands genially together.
“If you have information which would be useful to me I am prepared to pay its full value. As a matter of fact I called for that purpose. But you couldn’t have any worth two hundred pounds or anything like it.”
“No? Well, just what do you want to know?”
“Dangle’s address.”
“I can give you that. Anything else?”
Cheyne hesitated. Should he ask for all the information he could get about the sinister quartet and their mysterious activities? He had practically admitted the burglary. Should he not make the most of his opportunity? In for a penny, in for a pound.
“Did you ever hear of a man called Sime?” he asked.
“Of course, sir. Number Three of the quartet.”
“I should like his address also.”
“I can give it to you. And Blessington’s?”
“Yes, Blessington’s too.”
Cheyne was amazed by the knowledge of this Speedwell. He would give a good deal to find out how he had obtained it.
“What are the businesses of these men?”
“That,” said Mr. Speedwell, “is three questions. First: What is Dangle’s business? Second: What is Sime’s business? Third: What is Blessington’s business? Yes, sir, I can answer these questions also.”
“How did you find all that out?”
Mr. Speedwell smiled and shook his head.
“There, sir, you have me. I’m afraid I can’t tell you that. You see, if we professional detectives were to give away our little methods to you amateur gentlemen we should soon be out of business. You, sir, will appreciate the position. It would be parting with our capital, and no business man can afford to do that. Anything else, Mr. Cheyne?”
“You mentioned a paper?”
“Yes, sir?”
“Where is it?”
“That I can answer partially.”
“What is it about?”
“I do not know.”
“Ah, then there is something you do not know. What is the enterprise these men are going into in connection with the paper?”
“That, Mr. Cheyne, I do not know either. You see I am perfectly open with you. I have been conducting a sort of desultory inquiry into these men’s affairs, partly because I was interested, partly because I thought I could turn my information into money. I have reached the point indicated in my answers. I can proceed with the investigation and learn the rest of what you wish to know, assuming of course that we come to suitable terms. You can have the information I have already gained now, with of course the same
