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MALCOLM SAGE, DETECTIVE
MALCOLM SAGE, DETECTIVE
by I Sir John Dene Receives His Orders II The Strange Case of Mr. Challoner III Malcolm Sage's Mysterious Movements IV The Surrey Cattle-Maiming Mystery V Inspector Wensdale Is Surprised VI The Stolen Admiralty Memorandum VII The Outrage at the Garage VIII Gladys Norman Dines with Thompson IX The Holding Up of Lady Glanedale X A Lesson in Deduction XI The McMurray Mystery XII The Marmalade Clue XIII The Gylston Slander XIV Malcolm Sage Plays Patience XV Th
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CHAPTER I SIR JOHN DENE RECEIVES HIS ORDERS I
CHAPTER I SIR JOHN DENE RECEIVES HIS ORDERS I
"John!" "Yeh!" "Don't say 'yeh,' say 'yes,' Dorothy dear." "Yes, Dorothy de——" Sir John Dene was interrupted in his apology by a napkin-ring whizzing past his left ear. "What's wrong?" he enquired, laying aside his paper and picking up the napkin-ring. "I'm trying to attract your attention," replied Lady Dene, slipping from her place at the breakfast-table and perching herself upon the arm of her husband's chair. She ran her fingers lightly through his hair. "Are you listening?" "Sure!" "Well, w
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II
II
"In the States they've got Pinkerton's," said Sir John Dene, twirling with astonishing rapidity an unlit cigar between his lips. "If you've lost anything, from a stick-pin to a mountain, you just blow in there, tell them all about it, and go away and don't worry. Here you've got nothing." "We have Scotland Yard," remarked Malcolm Sage quietly, without looking up from the contemplation of his hands, which, with fingers wide apart, rested upon the table before him. His bald, conical head seemed to
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CHAPTER II THE STRANGE CASE OF MR. CHALLONER I
CHAPTER II THE STRANGE CASE OF MR. CHALLONER I
"Please, sir, Miss Norman's fainted." William Johnson, known to his colleagues as the innocent, stood at Malcolm Sage's door, with widened eyes and a general air that bespoke helplessness. Without a word Malcolm Sage rose from his table, as if accustomed all his life to the fainting of secretaries. William Johnson stood aside, with the air of one who has rung a fire-alarm and now feels he is at liberty to enjoy the fire itself. Entering her room, Malcolm Sage found Gladys Norman lying in a heap
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II
II
As the car drew up, the hall-door of "The Cedars" was thrown open by the butler, a fair-haired clean-shaven man of about forty-five, with grave, impassive face, and eyes that gave the impression of allowing little to escape them. As he descended the flight of stone-steps to open the door of the car, a young man appeared behind him. A moment later Sir James was introducing him to Malcolm Sage as "Mr. Richard Dane." Dark, with smoothly-brushed hair and a toothbrush moustache, he might easily have
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CHAPTER III MALCOLM SAGE'S MYSTERIOUS MOVEMENTS I
CHAPTER III MALCOLM SAGE'S MYSTERIOUS MOVEMENTS I
Malcolm Sage found that Dawkins had completed his work, and the body of Mr. Challoner had been removed. Seating himself at the table, he took the automatic pistol in his hand and deliberately removed the cartridges. Then placing the muzzle against his right temple he turned his eyes momentarily on Dawkins, who, having anticipated his wishes, had already adjusted the camera. He removed the cap, replaced it, and then quickly reversed the plate. Pulling the trigger, Malcolm Sage allowed his head to
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II
II
"There is no witness so sure as the camera," remarked Malcolm Sage as he gazed from one to the other of two photographs before him, one representing him holding an automatic pistol to his own head, and the other in which Sir James was posing as a murderer. "It is strange that it should be so neglected at Scotland Yard," he added. Silent and absorbed when engaged upon a problem, Malcolm Sage resented speech as a sick man resents arrowroot. At other times he seemed to find pleasure in lengthy mono
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CHAPTER IV THE SURREY CATTLE-MAIMING MYSTERY
CHAPTER IV THE SURREY CATTLE-MAIMING MYSTERY
"Disguise," Malcolm Sage had once re-marked, "is the chief characteristic of the detective of fiction. In actual practise it is rarely possible. I am a case in point. No one but a builder, or an engineer, could disguise the shape of a head like mine;" as he spoke he had stroked the top of his head, which rose above his strongly-marked brows like a down-covered cone. He maintained that a disguise can always be identified, although not necessarily penetrated. This in itself would be sufficient to
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II
II
"So there is nothing?" Malcolm Sage looked up enquiringly from the map before him. "Nothing that even a stage detective could turn into a clue," said Inspector Wensdale, a big, cleanshaven man with hard, alert eyes. Malcolm Sage continued his study of the map. "Confound those magazine detectives!" the inspector burst out explosively. "They've always got a dust-pan full of clues ready made for 'em." "To say nothing of finger-prints," said Malcolm Sage dryly. He never could resist a sly dig at Sco
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CHAPTER V INSPECTOR WENSDALE IS SURPRISED I
CHAPTER V INSPECTOR WENSDALE IS SURPRISED I
Nearly a month had elapsed, and the cattle-maiming mystery seemed as far off solution as ever. The neighbourhood in which the crimes had been committed had once more settled down to its usual occupations, and Scotland Yard had followed suit. Sir John Hackblock had written to the Chief Commissioner and a question had been asked in the House. Inspector Wensdale's colleagues had learned that it was dangerous to mention in his presence the words "cattle" or "maiming." The inspector knew that the aff
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II
II
At eleven o'clock on the night of July the 23rd, two motor lorries glided slowly along some three miles distant from one another. From their interiors silent forms dropped noiselessly on to the moon-white road. A moment later, slipping into the shadow of the hedge, they disappeared. All the previous night men had watched and waited; but nothing had happened. Now they were to try again. Overhead the moon was climbing the sky, struggling against masses of cloud that from time to time swung themsel
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III
III
"And that damned scoundrel has been fooling us for two years." Sir John Hackblock glared at Inspector Wensdale as if it were he who was responsible for the deception. They were seated smoking in Sir John's library after a particularly early breakfast. "I always said it was the work of a madman," said the inspector in self-defence. "Callice is no more mad than I am," snapped Sir John. "I wish I were going to try him," he added grimly. "The scoundrel! To think——" His indignation choked him. "He is
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CHAPTER VI THE STOLEN ADMIRALTY MEMORANDUM I
CHAPTER VI THE STOLEN ADMIRALTY MEMORANDUM I
"Well," cried Tims, one Saturday night, as he pushed open the kitchen door of the little flat he occupied over the garage. "How's the cook, the stove, and the supper?" "I'm busy," said Mrs. Tims, a little, fair woman, with blue eyes, an impertinent nose, and the inspiration of neatness in her dress, as she altered the position of a saucepan on the stove and put two plates into the oven to warm. This was the invariable greeting between husband and wife. Tims went up behind her, gripped her elbows
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II
II
In his more expansive moments Malcolm Sage would liken himself to a general practitioner in a diseased-infected district. It is true that there was no speaking-tube, with its terrifying whistle, a few feet from his head; but the telephone by his bedside was always liable to arouse him from sleep at any hour of the night. As Tims had folded up his newspaper with a view to bed, Malcolm Sage was removing his collar before the mirror on his dressing-table, when his telephone bell rang. Rogers, his m
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III
III
In the library at The Towers three men were seated, their faces lined and drawn as if some great misfortune had suddenly descended upon them; yet their senses were alert. They were listening. "He ought to be here any minute now," said Mr. Llewellyn John, the Prime Minister, taking out his watch for the hundredth time. Sir Lyster Grayne, First Lord of the Admiralty, shook his head. "He should do it in an hour," said Lord Beamdale, the Secretary of War, "if he's got a man who knows the road." "Sag
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CHAPTER VII THE OUTRAGE AT THE GARAGE I
CHAPTER VII THE OUTRAGE AT THE GARAGE I
When Mr. Walters descended the broad staircase of The Towers on the Sunday morning he found two things to disturb him—Sir Lyster's note on the hall-table, and the Japanese valet "lost" in the conservatory. He read the one with attention, and rebuked the other with acrimony. Having failed to find the missing key himself, he proceeded to the housekeeper's room, and poured into the large and receptive ear of Mrs. Eames the story of his woes. "And this a Sunday too," the housekeeper was just remarki
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CHAPTER VIII GLADYS NORMAN DINES WITH THOMPSON I
CHAPTER VIII GLADYS NORMAN DINES WITH THOMPSON I
"Tommy," remarked Miss Gladys Norman one day as Thompson entered her room through the glass-panelled door, "have you ever thought what I shall do fifty years hence?" "Darn my socks," replied the practical Thompson. "I mean," she proceeded with withering deliberation, "what will happen when I can't do the hundred in ten seconds?" Thompson looked at her with a puzzled expression. "My cousin Will says that if you can't do the hundred yards in ten seconds you haven't an earthly," she explained. "It'
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II
II
"It's a funny old world," remarked Gladys Norman that evening, as she and Thompson sat at a sheltered table in a little Soho restaurant. "It's a jolly nice old world," remarked Thompson, looking up from his plate, "and this chicken is it." "Chicken first; Gladys Norman also ran," she remarked scathingly. Thompson grinned and returned to his plate. "Why do you like the Chief, Tommy?" she demanded. Thompson paused in his eating, resting his hands, still holding knife and fork, upon the edge of the
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CHAPTER IX THE HOLDING UP OF LADY GLANEDALE I
CHAPTER IX THE HOLDING UP OF LADY GLANEDALE I
"More trouble, Tommy," remarked Gladys Norman one morning as James Thompson entered her room. He looked across at her quickly, a keen flash of interest in his somnolent brown eyes. "Somebody's pinched Lady Glanedale's jewels. Just had a telephone message. What a happy place the world would be without drink and crime——" "And women," added Thompson, alert of eye, and prepared to dodge anything that was coming. "Tommy, you're a beast. Get thee hence!" and, bending over her typewriter, she became ab
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CHAPTER X A LESSON IN DEDUCTION I
CHAPTER X A LESSON IN DEDUCTION I
Mr. Grimwood, of the firm of Grimwood, Galton & Davy, insurance assessors, looked up from the list in his hand. He was a shrewd little man, with side-whiskers, pince-nez that would never sit straight 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 awaiting the coming of Lady Glanedale. "And yet Mr. Glanedale heard nothing," rema
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II
II
"It's a very unpleasant business," remarked Mr. Goodge, the General Manager of the Twentieth Century Insurance Company, as he looked up from reading a paper that Malcolm Sage had just handed to him. In it Lady Glanedale confessed the fraud she had sought to practise upon the Corporation. "A very unpleasant business," he repeated. Malcolm Sage gazed down at his finger-nails, as if the matter had no further interest for him. When his brain was inactive, his hands were at rest. "I don't know what v
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CHAPTER XI THE MCMURRAY MYSTERY I
CHAPTER XI THE MCMURRAY MYSTERY I
Of the many problems upon which Malcolm Sage was engaged during the early days of the Malcolm Sage Bureau, that concerning the death of Professor James McMurray, the eminent physiologist, was perhaps the most extraordinary. It was possessed of several remarkable features; for one thing the murderer had disappeared, leaving no clue; for another the body when found seemed to have undergone a strange change, many of the professor's sixty-five years appearing to have dropped from him in death as lea
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II
II
"Johnnie," said Miss Norman, as William Johnson entered her room in response to a peremptory call on the private-telephone, "Inspector Carfon is to honour us with a call during the next few minutes. Give him a chair and a copy of The Sunday at Home , and watch the clues as they peep out of his pockets. Now buzz off." William Johnson returned to his table in the outer office and the lurid detective story from which Miss Norman's summons had torn him. He was always gratified when an officer from S
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CHAPTER XII THE MARMALADE CLUE I
CHAPTER XII THE MARMALADE CLUE I
AS Malcolm Sage and Inspector Carfon crossed the lawn from the laboratory, Sir Jasper Chambers was seen coming down the drive towards them. "There's Sir Jasper," cried the inspector. When they reached the point where the lawn joined the drive they paused, waiting for Sir Jasper to approach. He walked with long, loose strides, his head thrust forward, his mind evidently absorbed and far away from where he was. His coat flapped behind him, and at each step his trousers jerked upwards, displaying s
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II
II
Three weeks passed and there was no development in the McMurray Mystery. Malcolm Sage had heard nothing from Inspector Carfon, who was busily engaged in an endeavour to trace the tramp seen in the neighbourhood of "The Hollows" on the day previous to the murder. Sir John Dene had called several times upon Malcolm Sage, whom he had come to regard as infallible, only to be told that there was no news. He made no comment; but it was obvious that he was greatly disappointed. Interest began to wane,
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CHAPTER XIII THE GYLSTON SLANDER
CHAPTER XIII THE GYLSTON SLANDER
"It's all very well for the Chief to sit in there like a five-guinea palmist," Gladys Norman cried one morning, as after interviewing the umpteenth caller that day she proceeded vigorously to powder her nose, to the obvious interest of William Johnson; "but what about me? If anyone else comes I must speak the truth. I haven't an unused lie left." "Then you had better let Johnson have a turn," said a quiet voice behind her. She span round, with flaming cheeks and white-flecked nose, to see the st
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CHAPTER XIV MALCOLM SAGE PLAYS PATIENCE I
CHAPTER XIV MALCOLM SAGE PLAYS PATIENCE I
Malcolm Sage was seated at a small green-covered table playing solitaire. A velvet smoking-jacket and a pair of wine-coloured morocco slippers suggested that the day's work was done. Patience, chess, and the cinema were his unfailing sources of inspiration when engaged upon a more than usually difficult case. He had once told Sir James Walton that they clarified his brain and coordinated his thoughts, the cinema in particular. The fact that in the surrounding darkness were hundreds of other brai
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II
II
The next afternoon the study of the vicar of Gylston presented a strange appearance. Seated at Mr. Crayne's writing-table was Malcolm Sage, a small attaché-case at his side, whilst before him were several piles of sealed packets. Grouped about the room were Inspector Murdy, Robert Freynes, Mr. Gray, and the vicar. All had their eyes fixed upon Malcolm Sage; but with varying expressions. Those of the schoolmaster were frankly cynical. The inspector and Freynes looked as if they expected to see pr
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III
III
"From the first I suspected the truth," remarked Malcolm Sage, as he, Robert Freynes and Inspector Murdy sat smoking in the car that Tims was taking back to London at its best pace. "Eighty-five years ago a somewhat similar case occurred in France, that of Marie de Morel, when an innocent man was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment, and actually served eight before the truth was discovered." The inspector whistled under his breath. "This suspicion was strengthened by the lengthy account of the
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CHAPTER XV THE MISSING HEAVYWEIGHT I
CHAPTER XV THE MISSING HEAVYWEIGHT I
"Mr. Doulton, sir. Very important." Rogers had carefully assimilated his master's theory of the economy of words, sometimes even to the point of obscuring his meaning. Taking the last piece of toast from the rack, Malcolm Sage with great deliberation proceeded to butter it. Then, with a nod to the waiting Rogers, he poured out the last cup of coffee the pot contained. A moment later the door opened to admit a clean-shaven little man of about fifty, prosperous in build and appearance; but obvious
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II
II
That afternoon in his office Malcolm Sage worked without cessation. Both telephones, incoming and outgoing, were continually in use. Telegraph girls and messenger boys came and went. Gladys Norman had ceased to worry about the shininess of her nose, and William Johnson was in process of readjusting his ideas as to lack of the dramatic element at the Malcolm Sage Bureau as compared with detective fiction and the films. About three o'clock a tall, clean-shaven man was shown into Malcolm Sage's roo
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CHAPTER XVI THE GREAT FIGHT AT THE OLYMPIA
CHAPTER XVI THE GREAT FIGHT AT THE OLYMPIA
Never had the Olympia seen such a crowd as was gathered to watch the fight between Charley Burns of England and Joe Jefferson of America, Never in its career of hybrid ugliness had it witnessed such excitement. For thirty-six hours the wildest rumours had been current. Charley Burns had broken down, run away, committed suicide, and refused to fight. He had broken a leg, an arm, a finger, and had torn more tendons than he possessed. He had sprained ankles, wrung withers, been overtrained, had con
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II
II
Later that night, just as Big Ben was taking breath preparatory to his supreme effort, Malcolm Sage was seated in his big arm-chair smoking a final pipe before bed, and turning over in his mind the happenings of the day and the probable events of the morrow. His train of thought was suddenly interrupted by a hammering at the outer door of his chambers, followed by the sound of loud and hilarious voices as Rogers answered the summons. A moment later the door of the sitting-room burst open, and th
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CHAPTER XVII LADY DENE CALLS ON MALCOLM SAGE
CHAPTER XVII LADY DENE CALLS ON MALCOLM SAGE
"Lady Dene wishes to see you, Miss." "Sure the Archbishop of Canterbury isn't with her, Johnnie dear?" asked Gladys Norman sweetly, without looking up from the cleaning of her typewriter. In her own mind she was satisfied that this was a little joke inspired by Thompson. "No, Miss, she's alone," replied the literal William Johnson. "Show her Ladyship in," she said, still playing for safety. "Da—— sh!" she muttered as, having inadvertently touched the release, the carriage slid to the left, pinch
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