Good Lord!" he muttered under his breath; what a perfectly appalling situation. Lyall, Willard Lyall a member of the silver Arrow Group and father of Mercia! And I've sent him to pentonville. I've shut him up in a penal cell just as surely as though I turned the key in him myself. the Yard will act on intimation no 34 with absolute certainty. they always have acted on my cards ever since intimation no 4 anyway, when even officialdom began to realise that.....phew! Delivery and Shaughnessy have already got the net out. they're closing in on Lyall as surely as darkness closes over the day."
He tried to untangle the maze, but his jaded brain could find no pin-point of light. The posting of that letter had amassed around him a mountain of such unscalable difficulties that he felt himself getting tinier and more abjectly helpless with every minute that passed.
In moments of crisis, a man is apt to resort to panic measures and in so doing it is just possible that he does blindly the thing which in his saner moments he could do only after hours of studious thought and logical reasoning Dain did.
He stuck his head out of the window and redirected the driver to kingsway again. He stopped him at the top of Southampton row paid him off, and walked to his laboratory.
The place was almost silent. A single dynamo humming quietly in the corner, a tiny coronet of blue sparks playing on the communators. Dain switched on the restful green lights and started up the other dynamos. In his long white overalls he moved about through the uncanny gloom like a dim ghost in the twilight of the gods.
With headphones on and contact keys plugged in on a whole series of winking dials, he renounce himself to another long bout of listening.
A brazen bell in a clock-tower boomed two o'clock clangorously into the night, but Dain, in his soundproof room heard nothing to it.
And then, when his head was almost lolling forward with weariness , he got a line on a conversation that jolted the weariness out of him that galvanized him into a new effort of eager intensity.
"One of them said:. "odd! you call it odd!why, burn my eyes, it's uncanny! that's the thirty-fourth. The thirty-fourth mind you, in less than nine months. It's----its----bah! we'll be waking up one morning and finding it's all a dream we've been having."
"A dream, eh?" said the other. "with fifty-seven of the toughest birds in London under lock and key. A dream, eh?" with four men walking about London as large as life who if it hadn't been for the ghost ; would have not been corpses by now---murdered as surely as they know it themselves. it's not much use talking about dreams, Shaughnessy when we've collared em in rows, caught 'em with the goods on men we've been itching to get our claws on for years. Dreams! It's not dreams, mick----nightmares if you like. He's making us the laughing stock of every police organization in the world. I'm half expecting my own shadow to turn round and grin at me."
Shaughnessy's voice cut back with its faint touch of the Irish brogue and it's softening leaven of native humour.
"Aw! don't get mad. Long life to the ghost says I. I'm no stickler for personal pride and he keeps landing the fish anyway. I think you're all wrong. why try to track him down? He's better than the flying squads, better than a whole charge-room full of squealers.
Delbury cut him short with a voice that was waspish with irritability.
"Don't you see----that's just what he is" he blurted. "He's the king of all the squealers that lived since Judas first fingered silver. He's the biggest crook we've ever known. And he's double-crossing them all---he won't stand for opposition. He's Brain---- a like crime maker. Those we have manage to take in to now are only puppets, his puppets most likely, and---"
"Ahhhr! Away with you. why should he be selling his own boys? for why should he be playing the fool with his own crowds?.
"How the blue blazes do u know? All I know is that no man on earth could have done what the ghost has done unless he was in with the gangs---- in with 'em up to the eyes. He's got the leaders of every big coup for the past twelve months in his pocket. He knows their names, knows their way, knows their plans. Gosh! can't you see? He's hand and glove with every big move afoot."
"Then you must think he's a lunatic. you must do. you think he's just cutting off his nose to have a look at it?"
"That's the nearest we've got to it yet. A madman. A raving, marvellous, unbelievable imbecile. And I'll get him if u have to come all of London for him. I'll get him if I have to call in the chief and make him give me every man in the Yard. I'll lay that ghost before the month is out-----or I'll quit!"
" There came a brief pause, then he suddenly snapped out: "Is everything all right for Tuesday morning? You'll be in full charge at Park Lane."
"Sure, everything's as sweet as a pot of honey." replied the soft Irish voice. "I've had a talk with her Grace herself and a fine, stately party she is. she says she will be the sowl of discretion about the matter and I think she will an' all; her family us as cold as the Dublin mountains, and a lot more shy about scandal."
"What are your arrangements?"
"I've got six men in the kingsland mews; they'll be there right on from midday so that their arrival won't be noticed. I've had peepholes drilled in the horses stalls which same are now a row if motor garages. my men will be hidden away there, and their orders are to take the man nearest to 'em when the sergeant gives the word. there will be two others down in the area by the kitchen window, well out of sight and two more over in Hyde's park in the shadows of the railings. They will be guarding the road approaches and will whistle if anything happens on their side."
"Yes, and you?"
"I'll be in the library. The Duchess herself was wanting to be there she's got courage all right as the old lady but I wouldn't hear of it. The servants will be warned at midnight that not a soul must go near that library. I'll be armed, and I'll shoot if that door opens a foot . The telephone authorities are disconnecting the line to all out-going calls, si that if the silver Arrow have any friends inside the house they won't be able to get a warning through before it's too late. That gang is as good as dead. We'll collar the whole crowd it them as easy as eating pie."
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The man they couldn't Arrest The ghost information
" Yes, I dare say," said Delbury snappishly; "but that won't bring us any nearer to getting our hands on the ghost, will it?""Ahhhr! leave the man alone. it's after doing you a good turn, he is" snorted Shaughnessy.There was silence for a minute, and then Delbury declared his unbelief in the existence of this newcomer, Lyall."Who is he?" he demanded. "Eh? Who is he? Is he the new leader of this gang of ruffians, or Is he just one of the mob? I've searched every file in the records and there isn't a trace of a Lyall big enough to be in with the silver Arrows. The only one recorded at all isn't in the possibilities. He's doing a four years stretch in pentonville and won't be out till next year.""I'm game to bet that there is a Lyall in that bunch when we get the handcuffs on 'em , anyway." said Shaughnessy grimly."thirty-four times the ghost has come through with the goods. and we've landed 'em every time. I'm game
The man they couldn't Arrest A warning for Williard Lyall
Willard Lyall came down to breakfast and glanced at his mail. it was a fairly large pile, but nothing more than usual. Mercia often twitted him with the fact that he seemed to do most of his business by correspondence at home.He tossed one or two letters aside, matters of small moments, thrust one or two others into an inside pocket without opening them and then picked up a plain post-card. it was addressed to him in neat, upright capitals and note the London post-mark across the stamp. The date of posting was blurred and scarcely decipherable. He turned it over in curiously . on the reverse side also in black print letters, was a single sentence.A slow frown spread over his face as he read it. His hand shook and he dropped the card suddenly to the table. There was a sickly, unhealthy pallor crawling slowly over his skin, but the dark brows had come down over his eyes like a thunder cloud. He read the extraordinary thing again and a lo
The man they couldn't Arrest Suspected Squealers
Throughout breakfast Lyall was very quiet and uncommunicative. To cover his very unusual mealtime restraint he pretended a deep absorption in his morning papers. As soon as he had left the house, Mercia and her mother exchange meaning glances. "Dad seems very reserved this morning mum," said Mercia. "Probably worried about business affairs, my dear," said Mrs. Lyall. "You will come to know men in times as well as I do. And I think I know Willard very well. When a man is having a harassing time in the city, he resorts to silence." Mercia shrugged."I don't think it's mere worry," she said quietly. "I've seen dad when he has had worry before. I've seen him when he has been like a bear with a sore head. But I've never seen him like he was this morning when I came into the breakfast room. I know dad, and it seemed to me that he had received some awful shock."Mrs. Lyall looked very perturbed."A shock
The man they couldn't Arrest Unknown spy
"You see," continued Lyall ; "it means that somewhere in London there is an UNKNOWN SPY who knows as much about my movements as I do myself. It must be obvious to even the meanest intelligence that he is fully aware of my intentions regarding the Duchess of Renburgh's jewels. It is or ought to be equally obvious that he has already notified the police of my intentions or perhaps I ought to say our intentions. otherwise why should he warn me? And again, why has he warn me and not the others? But chiefly, who the devil is he?"The cold, chill note had gone out of Lyall's voice. His easy assumption of casual detachment fell away and he uttered the last words with a rasping asperity."I've been thinking matters over very closely this morning," he went on, "and I've come to the conclusion that here, I'm this warning is a clue to the biggest mystery we have ever known. here is a connecting link with something that has been gnawing at my thoughts for weeks." He br
The man they couldn't Arrest Another surprise Letter
Two miles away In an office high up among the roofs in kingsway, Valmon Dain removed a contact key from a red-lit dial and mopped his forehead."So!" he muttered, and dabbed at his forehead again. "murder, is it? eh? Well that is a word that is guaranteed to put a different colour on anything."He sat down gingerly on the edge of a chair and lost himself in a teeming intensity of thought.His mind had gone on ahead of the days and he too was standing in the black darkness of the area by the kingsland mews. He saw the dark figures slinking along from shadow to shadow, elusive as the ghost of flitting bats. saw them mustering in the silence and waiting, waiting for the man who would not be there.And then the sudden uprising of other shadows from the blackness avenging shadows which advanced with malignant swiftness from nowhere. the quick sharp scuffle, and then the fierce passionate denunciation of Willard Lyall, the traitor, the m
The man they couldn't Arrest Williard Lyall fainted and his gang busted
Mercia halfway through a rippling medley of sharps and naturals stopped with a jerk, her white fingers poised daintily above the keys."What was that?" she said in a puzzle voice to herself. What had seemed just like an unmistakable bump had just sounded in the next room. She thought something must have fallen over but one can never tell with a half a dozen servants busy about the house. They make such queer noises at times, shifting furniture about and doing the myriad things that only servants seem to find necessary to do."That you dad?" she called. And no answering hail came from the next room."Dad are you there?" she called again rising from her stool. And there was silence in the study.Mercia ran in. Her father was lying prone on the floor, his face buried in the thick pile of the carpet almost suffocating."mummy come quickly," she cried through the door."Dad has fainted quickly phone the doctor.
The man they couldn't Arrest Dain's identity discovered by Tansy
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The man they couldn't Arrest Plotting the murder of Valmon Dain
"What are you looking so peeved about?" he inquired truculently. "He can't do us no good while he stays alive, cab he?""Not that I'm aware of," said Lyall. "But at the same time, you'll admit there are difficulties. I don't even know that this is the man we're looking for."well, perish my bones!" snorted Tansy. "I saw him with my own eyes, didn't I? saw him pull out his book and write the names down. saw him turn over the pages with 'eaps of other cases wrote down on 'em ; saw him take the names out of the paper and stick 'em down under the silver Arrow. And blimey!----- I saw the writing' , too! You can't get away from that!""Y-yes, I know," said Lyall defensively. "But you also said his name was Dent, and that he has an office in kingsway. That, I know for a positive fact, is untrue.""Is it? Well, maybe you know more about him than I do."There was something more than a note of grievance in Tansy's voice. there w
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