Malcolm Sage, Detective

That laugh was a Boddy lifebelt to the sinking heart of Thompson.

CHAPTER IX THE HOLDING UP OF LADY GLANEDALE

I

"More trouble, Tommy," remarked Gladys Norman one morning as JamesThompson entered her room. He looked across at her quickly, a keenflash of interest in his somnolent brown eyes.

"Somebody's pinched Lady Glanedale's jewels. Just had a telephonemessage. What a happy place the world would be without drink andcrime – "

"And women," added Thompson, alert of eye, and prepared to dodgeanything that was coming.

"Tommy, you're a beast. Get thee hence!" and, bending over hertypewriter, she became absorbed in rattling words on to paper.

Thompson had just reached the third line of "I'm Sorry I Made YouCry," when his quick eye detected Malcolm Sage as he entered theouter office.

With a brief "Good morning," Malcolm Sage passed into his room, anda minute later Gladys Norman was reading from her note-book themessage that had come over the telephone to the effect that earlythat morning a burglar had entered Lady Glanedale's bedroom at theHome Park, Hyston, the country house of Sir Roger Glanedale, and, under threat from a pistol, had demanded her jewel-case, which shehad accordingly handed to him.

As the jewels were insured with the Twentieth Century InsuranceCorporation, Ltd., Malcolm Sage had been immediately communicatedwith, that he might take up the enquiry with a view to tracing themissing property.

One of Malcolm Sage's first cases had been undertaken for thiscompany in connection with a burglary. He had been successful inrestoring the whole of the missing property. In consequence hehad been personally thanked by the Chairman at a fully attendedBoard Meeting, and at the same time presented with a gold-mountedwalking-stick, which, as he remarked to Sir John Dene, no one buta drum-major in full dress would dare to carry.

Having listened carefully as she read her notes, Malcolm Sagedismissed Gladys Norman with a nod, and for some minutes sat at histable drawing the inevitable diagrams upon his blotting pad.Presently he rose, and walked over to a row of shelves filled withred-backed volumes, lettered on the back "Records," with a numberand a date.

Every crime or curious occurrence that came under Malcolm Sage'snotice was duly chronicled in the pages of these volumes, whichcontained miles of press-cuttings. They were rendered additionallyvaluable by an elaborate system of cross-reference indexing.

After referring to an index-volume, Malcolm Sage selected one of thefolios, and returned with it to his table. Rapidly turning over thepages he came to a newspaper-cutting, which was dated some fiveweeks previously. This he read and pondered over for some time. Itran:

DARING BURGLARY

Country Mansion Entered

Burglar's Sang-froid

In the early hours of yesterday morning a daring burglary wascommitted at the Dower House, near Hyston, the residence of Mr.Gerald Comminge, who was away from home at the time, by which theburglar was able to make a rich haul of jewels.

In the early hours of the morning Mrs. Comminge was awakened by thepresence of a man in her room. As she sat up in bed, the man turnedan electric torch upon her and, pointing a revolver in her direction, warned her that if she cried out he would shoot. He then demanded toknow where she kept her jewels, and Mrs. Comminge, too terrified todo anything else, indicated a drawer in which lay her jewel-case.

Taking the jewel-case and putting it under his arm, the manthreatened that if she moved or called out within a quarter of anhour he would return and shoot her. He then got out of the window onto a small balcony and disappeared.

It seems that he gained admittance by clambering up some ivy andthus on to the narrow balcony that runs the length of one side ofthe house.

Immediately on the man's disappearance, Mrs. Comminge fainted. Oncoming to she gave the alarm, and the police were immediatelytelephoned for. Although the man's footprints are easily discernibleupon the mould and the soft turf, the culprit seems to have left noother clue.

The description that Mrs. Comminge is able to give of her assailantis rather lacking in detail, owing to the shock she experienced athis sudden appearance. It would appear that the man is of mediumheight and slight of build. He wore a cap and a black handkerchieftied across his face just beneath his eyes, which entirely maskedhis features. With this very inadequate description of the ruffianthe police have perforce to set to work upon the very difficult taskof tracing him.

For some time Malcolm Sage pondered over the cutting, then rising hereplaced the volume and rang for Thompson.

An hour later Tims was carrying him along in the direction of Sir

Roger Glanedale's house at a good thirty-five miles an hour.

The Home Park was an Elizabethan mansion that had been acquired bySir Roger Glanedale out of enormous profits made upon the sale ofmargarine. As Tims brought the car up before the front entrance withan impressive sweep, the hall-door was thrown open by the butler, who habitually strove by an excessive dignity of demeanour to removefrom his mental palate the humiliating flavour of margarine.

Malcolm Sage's card considerably mitigated the impression made uponMr. Hibbs's mind by the swing with which Tims had brought the car upto the door.

Malcolm Sage was shown into the morning-room and told that herladyship would see him in a few minutes. He was busy in thecontemplation of the garden when the door opened and Lady Glanedaleentered.

He bowed and then, as Lady Glanedale seated herself at a small table,he took the nearest chair.

She was a little woman, some eight inches too short for the air sheassumed, fair, good-looking; but with a hard, set mouth. No one hadever permitted her to forget that she had married margarine.

"You have called about the burglary?" she enquired, in a tone shemight have adopted to a plumber who had come to see to a leak in thebath.

Malcolm Sage bowed.

"Perhaps you will give me the details," he said. "Kindly be as briefas possible," his "incipient Bolshevism" manifesting itself in hismanner.

Lady Glanedale elevated her eyebrows; but, as Malcolm Sage's eyeswere not upon her, she proceeded to tell her story.

"About one o'clock this morning I was awakened to find a man in mybedroom," she began. "He was standing between the bedstead and thefarther window, his face masked. He had a pistol in one hand, whichhe pointed towards me, and an electric torch in the other. I sat upin bed and stared at him. 'If you call out I shall kill you,' hesaid. I asked him what he wanted. He replied that if I gave him myjewel-case and did not call for help, he would not do me any harm.

"Realising that I was helpless, I got out of bed, put on a wrapper, opened a small safe I have set in the wall, and handed him one ofthe two jewel-cases I possess.

"He then made me promise that I would not ring or call out for aquarter of an hour, and he disappeared out of the window.

"At the end of a quarter of an hour I summoned help, and my stepson, the butler, and several other servants came to my room. Wetelephoned for the police, and after breakfast we telephoned to theinsurance company."

For fully a minute there was silence. Malcolm Sage decided thatLady Glanedale certainly possessed the faculty of telling a storywith all the events in their proper sequence. He found himself withvery few questions to put to her.

"Can you describe the man?" he asked as he mechanically turned overthe leaves of a book on a table beside him.

"Not very well," she replied. "I saw little more than a silhouetteagainst the window. He was of medium height, slight of build and Ishould say young."

"That seems to agree with the description of the man who robbed Mrs.

Comminge," he said as if to himself.

"That is what the inspector said," remarked Lady Glanedale.

"His voice?"

"Was rather husky, as if he were trying to disguise it."

"Was it the voice of a man of refinement or otherwise?"

"I should describe it as middle-class," was the snobbish response.

"The mask?"

"It looked like a silk handkerchief tied across his nose. It wasdark in tone; but I could get only a dim impression."

Malcolm Sage inclined his head comprehendingly.

"You know Mrs. Comminge?"

"Intimately."

"You mentioned two jewel-cases," he said.

"The one stolen contained those I mostly wear," replied Lady

Glanedale; "in the other I keep some very valuable family jewels."

"What was the value of those stolen?"

"About 8,000 pounds," she replied, "possibly more. I should explain, perhaps, that Sir Roger was staying in town last night, and so far Ihave not been able to get him on the telephone. He was to havestayed at the Ritzton; but apparently he found them full and wentelsewhere."

"You have no suspicion as to who it was that entered your room?"

"None whatever," said Lady Glanedale.

"The police have already been?" he enquired, as he examined withgreat intentness a rose he had taken from a bowl beside him.

"Yes, they came shortly after we telephoned. They gave instructionsthat nothing was to be touched in the room, and no one was to gonear the ground beneath the windows."

Malcolm Sage nodded approvingly, and returned the rose to the bowl.

"And now," he said, "I think I should like to see the room. By theway, I take it that you keep your safe locked?"

"Always," said Lady Glanedale.

"Where do you keep the key?"

"In the bottom right-hand drawer of my dressing-table, under a pileof handkerchiefs."

"As soon as you can I should like to see a list of the jewels," said

Malcolm Sage, as he followed Lady Glanedale towards the door.

"My maid is copying it out now," she replied, and led the way up thestaircase, along a heavily-carpeted corridor, at the end of whichshe threw open a door giving access to a bedroom.

Malcolm Sage entered and gave a swift look about him, seeming tonote and catalogue every detail. It was a large room, with twowindows looking out on to a lawn. On the right was a door, which,Lady Glanedale explained, led to Sir Roger's dressing-room.

He walked over to the window near the dressing-room and looked out.

"That is the window he must have entered by; he went out that way,"explained Lady Glanedale.

"You spoke of a stepson," said Malcolm Sage. "He is a man, Ipresume?"

"He is twenty-three." Lady Glanedale elevated her eyebrows as ifsurprised at the question.

"Can you send for him?"

"Certainly, if you wish it." She rang the bell, and a moment laterrequested the maid who answered it to ask Mr. Robert to comeimmediately.

"Do you sleep with lowered blinds?" enquired Malcolm Sage.

"The one nearest my bed I always keep down; the other I pull upafter putting out my light."

"Did you awaken suddenly, or gradually – as if it were your usualtime to awaken?"

"It was gradual," said Lady Glanedale, after a pause for thought. "Iremember having the feeling that someone was looking at me."

"Was the light from the torch shining on your face?"

"No, it was turned to the opposite side of the room, on my right as

I lay in bed."

At that moment a young man in tweeds entered.

"You want me, Mater?" he enquired; then, looking across at Malcolm

Sage with a slightly troubled shadow in his eyes, he bowed.

"This is Mr. Sage from the insurance company," said. Lady Glanedalecoldly. "He wishes to see you."

Again there was the slightly troubled look in young Glanedale's eyes.

"Perhaps you will place Mr. Glanedale in the exact position in whichthe man was standing when you first saw him," said Malcolm Sage.

Without a word Lady Glanedale walked over to the spot she hadindicated, young Glanedale following. When she had got him into thedesired position she turned interrogatingly to Malcolm Sage.

"Now," he said, "will you be so kind as to lie on your bed in thesame position in which you were when you awakened."

For a moment Lady Glanedale's eyebrows indicated surprise. She usedher eyebrows more than any other feature for the purpose ofexpressing emotion. Without comment, however, she lay down upon thebed on her right side, closed her eyes, then a moment later sat upand gazed in the direction where Glanedale stood looking awkward andself-conscious.

"Perhaps you will repeat every movement you made," said Malcolm Sage."Try to open the safe-door exactly as you did then, and leave it atthe same angle. Every detail is important."

Lady Glanedale rose, picked up a wrapper that was lying over achair-back, put it on and, walking over to the safe, turned the keythat was in the lock, and opened it. Then, standing between the safeand Glanedale, she took out a jewel-case and closed the door.Finally she walked over to where her stepson stood, and handed himthe jewel-case.

"Thank you," said Malcolm Sage. "I wanted to see whether or not theman had the opportunity of seeing into the safe."

"I took care to stand in front of it," she said.

"So I observed. You allowed the quarter of an hour to elapse beforeyou raised the alarm?"

"Certainly, I had promised," was the response.

"But a promise extorted by threats of violence is not binding," hesuggested as he pulled meditatively at his right ear.

"It is with me," was the cold retort.

He inclined his head slightly.

"I notice that the ground beneath the windows has been roped off."

"The inspector thought it had better be done, as there werefootprints."

"I will not trouble you further for the present, Lady Glanedale,"said Malcolm Sage, moving towards the door. "I should like to spenda little time in the grounds. Later I may require to interrogate theservants."

Young Glanedale opened the door and his stepmother, followed by

Malcolm Sage, passed out. They descended the stairs together.

"Please don't trouble to come out," said Malcolm Sage. "I shallprobably be some little time," this as Lady Glanedale moved towardsthe hall-door. "By the way," he said, as she turned towards themorning-room where she had received him, "did you happen to noticeif the man was wearing boots, or was he in stockinged feet?"

"I think he wore boots, she said, after a momentary pause.

"Thank you," and Malcolm Sage turned towards the door, which washeld open by the butler.

Passing down the steps and to the left, he walked round to the sideof the house, where the space immediately beneath Lady Glanedale'swindows had been roped off.

Stepping over the protecting rope, he examined the ground beneaththe window through which the burglar had entered.

Running along the side of the house was a flowerbed some two feetsix inches wide, and on its surface was clearly indicated a seriesof footprints. On the side of the painted water-pipe were scratchessuch as might have been made by someone climbing up to the windowabove.

Drawing a spring metal-rule from his pocket, he proceeded to take aseries of measurements, which he jotted down in a notebook.

He next examined the water-pipe up which the man presumably hadclimbed, and presently passed on to a similar pipe farther to theleft. Every inch of ground he subjected to a careful and elaborateexamination, lifting the lower branches of some evergreens andgazing beneath them.

Finally, closing his notebook with a snap, Malcolm Sage seatedhimself upon a garden-seat and, carefully filling and lighting hispipe, he became absorbed in the polished pinkness of the thirdfingernail of his left hand.

A quarter of an hour later he was joined by young Glanedale.

"Found anything?" he enquired.

"There are some footprints," said Malcolm Sage, looking at himkeenly. "By the way, what did you do when you heard of the robbery?"

"I went to the Mater's room."

"And after that?"

"I rushed downstairs and started looking about."

"You didn't happen to come anywhere near this spot, or walk upon themould there?" He nodded at the place he had just been examining.

"No; as a matter of fact, I avoided it. The Mater warned me to becareful."

Malcolm Sage nodded his head.

"Did the butler join you in your search?" he enquired.

"About five minutes later he did. He had to go back and put on somethings; he was rather sketchy when he turned up in the Mater'sroom." Glanedale grinned at the recollection.

"And you?" Malcolm Sage flashed on him that steel grey look ofinterrogation. For a moment the young man seemed embarrassed, and hehesitated before replying.

"As a matter of fact, I hadn't turned in," he said at length.

"I see," said Malcolm Sage, and there was something in his tone thatcaused Glanedale to look at him quickly.

"It was such a rippin' night that I sat at my bedroom windowsmoking," he explained a little nervously.

"Which is your bedroom window?"

Glanedale nodded in the direction of the farther end of the house.

"That's the governor's dressing-room," he said, indicating thewindow on the left of that through which the burglar had escaped,"and the next is mine."

"Did you see anything?" enquired Malcolm Sage, who, having unscrewedthe mouthpiece of his pipe, proceeded to clean it with a blade ofgrass.

Again there was the slightest suggestion of hesitation before

Glanedale replied.

"No, nothing. You see," he added hastily, "I was not looking out ofthe window, merely sitting at it. As a matter of fact, I was facingthe other way."

"You heard no noise?"

Glanedale shook his head.

"So that the first intimation you had of anything being wrong waswhat?" he asked.

"I heard the Mater at her door calling for assistance, and I wentimmediately."

Malcolm Sage turned and regarded the water-pipe speculatively.

"I wonder if anyone really could climb up that," he said. "I'm sure

I couldn't."

"Nothing easier," said Glanedale. "I could shin up in two ticks,"and he made a movement towards the pipe.

"No," said Malcolm Sage, putting a detaining hand upon his arm. "Ifyou want to demonstrate your agility, try the other. There are markson this I want to preserve."

"Right-o," cried Glanedale with a laugh, and a moment later he wasshinning up the further pipe with the agility of a South Seaislander after coker-nuts.

Malcolm Sage walked towards the pipe, glanced at it, and then at thefootprints beneath.

"You were quite right," he remarked casually. Then a moment later heenquired:

"Do you usually sit up late?"

"We're not exactly early birds," Glanedale replied a littleirrelevantly. "The Mater plays a lot of bridge, you know," he added.

"And that keeps you out of bed?"

"Yes and no," was the reply. "I can't afford to play with the

Mater's crowd; but I have to hang about until after they've gone.

The governor hates it. You see," he added confidentially, "when a man's had to make his money, he knows the value of it."

"True," said Malcolm Sage, but from the look in his eyes histhoughts seemed elsewhere.

"By the way, what time was it that you had a shower here lastnight?"

"A shower?" repeated Glanedale. "Oh! yes, I remember, it was justabout twelve o'clock; it only lasted about ten minutes."

"I'll think things over," said Malcolm Sage, and Glanedale, takingthe hint, strolled off towards the house.

Malcolm Sage walked over to where an old man was trimming a hedge.

"Could you lend me a trowel for half an hour?" he enquired.

"No, dang it, I can't," growled the old fellow. "I ain't a-going tolend no more trowels or anything else."

"Why?" enquired Malcolm Sage.

"There's my best trowel gone out of the tool-house," he grumbled,"and I ain't a-going to lend no others."

"How did it go?"

"How should I know?" he complained. "Walked out, I suppose, same astrowels is always doin'."

"When did you miss it?"

"It was there day 'fore yesterday I'll swear, and I ain't a-going tolend no more."

"Do you think the man who took the jewels stole it?" enquired

Malcolm Sage.

"Dang the jools," he retorted, "I want my trowel," and, grumbling tohimself, the old fellow shuffled off to the other end of the hedge.

Half an hour later Malcolm Sage was in Hyston, interviewing theinspector of police, who was incoherent with excitement. He learnedthat Scotland Yard was sending down a man that afternoon, furthermore that elaborate enquiries were being made in theneighbourhood as to any suspicious characters having recently beenseen.

Malcolm Sage asked a number of questions, to which he received moreor less impatient replies. The inspector was convinced that therobbery was the work of the same man who had got away with Mrs.Comminge's jewels, and he was impatient with anyone who did notshare this view.

From the police station Malcolm Sage went to The Painted Flag, where, having ordered lunch, he got through to the Twentieth CenturyInsurance Corporation, and made an appointment to meet one of theassessors at Home Park at three o'clock.

CHAPTER X A LESSON IN DEDUCTION

I

Mr. Grimwood, of the firm of Grimwood, Galton & Davy, insuranceassessors, looked up from the list in his hand. He was a shrewdlittle man, with side-whiskers, pince-nez that would never sitstraight upon his aquiline nose, and an impressive cough.

He glanced from Malcolm Sage to young Glanedale, then back again to

Malcolm Sage; finally he coughed.

The three men were seated in Sir Roger Glanedale's library awaitingthe coming of Lady Glanedale.

"And yet Mr. Glanedale heard nothing," remarked Mr. Grimwoodmusingly. "Strange, very strange."

"Are you in the habit of sitting smoking at your bedroom window?"enquired Malcolm Sage of Glanedale, his eyes averted.

"Er – no, not exactly," was the hesitating response.

"Can you remember when last you did such a thing?" was the nextquestion.

"I'm afraid I can't," said Glanedale, with an uneasy laugh.

"Perhaps you had seen something that puzzled you," continued MalcolmSage, his restless fingers tracing an imaginary design upon thepolished surface of the table before him.

Glanedale was silent. He fingered his moustache with a nervous hand.

Mr. Grimwood looked across at Malcolm Sage curiously.

"And you were watching in the hope of seeing something more,"continued Malcolm Sage.

"I – " began Glanedale, starting violently, then he stopped.

"Don't you think you had better tell us exactly what it was yousaw," said Malcolm Sage, raising a pair of gold-rimmed eyes thatmercilessly beat down the uneasy gaze of the young man.

"I – I didn't say I saw anything."

"It is for you to decide, Mr. Glanedale," said Malcolm Sage, withan almost imperceptible shrug of his shoulders, "whether it isbetter to tell your story now, or under cross-examination in thewitness-box. There you will be under oath, and the proceedings willbe public."

At that moment Lady Glanedale entered, and the three men rose.

"I am sorry to interrupt you," she said coldly, "but Sir Roger hasjust telephoned and wishes to speak to Mr. Glanedale."

"I fear we shall have to keep Sir Roger waiting," said Malcolm Sage, walking over to the door and closing it.

Lady Glanedale looked at him in surprise.

"I do not understand," she began.

"You will immediately," said Malcolm Sage quietly. "We were justdiscussing the robbery." He slightly stressed the word "robbery."

"Really – " began Lady Glanedale.

"Mr. Glanedale was sitting at his window smoking," continued MalcolmSage evenly. "He cannot remember ever having done such a thingbefore. I suggested that something unusual had attracted hisattention, and that he was waiting to see what would follow. I wasjust about to tell him what had attracted his attention when youentered, Lady Glanedale."

Glanedale looked across at his step-mother and then at Malcolm Sage.

His misery was obvious.

"Last night, soon after twelve," continued Malcolm Sage, "Mr.Glanedale happened to look out of his window and was surprised tosee a figure moving along towards the left. It was not the figure ofa man with a handkerchief tied across his face as a mask; but awoman. He watched. He saw it pause beneath the second window of yourbedroom, Lady Glanedale, not the one by which the burglar entered.Then it stooped down."

Malcolm Sage's fingers seemed to be tracing each movement of themysterious figure upon the surface of the table. Lady Glanedalegazed at his long, shapely hands as if hypnotised.