PINNACLE BOOKS NEW YORK (39 page)

"How
did you learn of that?" spat Chasseur, with
a
venomous look at his secretary and then the
speechless
member of the board sitting beside him.
Both,
for some time now, had looked like they
wished
they were somewhere else. Somewhere far
away.

"Ledger
mentioned the L, T & S," said Holmes,
"and
I checked them out. The offer you made that concern was tempting
indeed, but involved a relatively modest initial outlay, with
the bulk to come
in time payments.
That's what you were buying—
time.
The London, Tilbury and Southend, as a
matter
of procedure, had one of their officers run a check on your assets. A
pleasant man, I had quite a
talk with
him. He was much impressed by the four
hundred
thousand pounds in gold in the Bank of
London,
deposited to the account of Burton Hananish
but with a deed of transfer to the B & N
Railroad.
Then there was more than that in prom
issory
notes from the Credit Lyonnais. He gave an
A-1
report to his superiors because, just at the time of his survey, you
had all that collateral available, courtesy of your partners,
Hananish and Trelawney
. With the L,
T & S in your grasp, you are ready
to
do business with the Deutsche Bank."

The
first vestige of panic was forcing its way past
Chasseur's
guard and into his eyes.
"German
banks are attempting to secure a foot
hold
in British industry and transportation ranks
high
in their plans. The Deutsche Bank has agreed."

Since
Chasseur just regarded him dumbly,
Holmes
extracted the cable he had received prior to
our
departure from Baker Street.
"You
may not even know as yet, so let me inform you of the news obtained
by an operative of mine in
Berlin at
this moment." He read the cable.

"'Cincinnati
committed projection ten biggest
credit
mark BN.' Signed, Wally."

Chasseur
had recovered some of his composure;
but
there was a grim look about him, as though all
exits
were being blocked.

"You
can't siphon any sense from that gibberish,"
he
said with a sneer.

"I
can because it is the simple odd word code,
which
my associate knew I would recognize. The
odd
words in the message relate to the true words intended. The even
words are legitimate. My cor
respondent
is American, by the way, which aided
my
decoding. The first word,
Cincinnati
,
is bogus,
but
in America that metropolis has a considerable
German
population, so I substituted
Germans
.
Pro
jection
gave
me a moment's thought till I came up with
extension
.
I expected a message relative to a
sum, and the biggest number that comes to mind is
million.
So we have: Germans committed exten
sion
ten million credit.
Mark
must
mean
line
,
and
the
BN refers to Birmingham and Northern. With a
ten
million credit line from the Deutsche Bank plus
the
London, Tilbury and Southend acquisition, you
could
have muddled your books for years and kept
your
unsuspecting stockholders at bay as well."

Chasseur
was breathing heavily, like a bulldog
with
asthma.

Holmes
lit a cigarette in an airy fashion.

"You
might have gotten away with it, you know.
Your
hired assassin, Lightfoot McTigue, disposed of
Trelawney
and Michael, since you didn't need them anymore. This morning he took
care of Hananish as
well."

"But
the banker shot at you, Holmes," I ex
claimed
involuntarily.

"I
was not meant to die, Watson. Lightfoot had
blocked
the barrels of the shotgun, probably with
lead,
though wooden plugs would have done the
job.
There was a cable from Mr. Chasseur, here, warning Hananish of my
coming. The man was
teetering on the
brink mentally, you see."

Holmes'
somber eyes returned to Chasseur.
"You
knew the cable would panic him and that he would use his hidden
weapon. How simple to
have him do away
with himself. You must have felt
relieved
when McTigue cabled you that Hananish
was
dead and, his job done, that he was leaving for
the
Continent."

Chasseur's
blazing eyes fixed his secretary with a
fierce
glare. "You talked, you fool."

"Mr.
Chasseur, I've never even met Mr. Holmes."

"Don't
blame others, Chasseur. It was just a
matter
of pulling all the pieces together. Hanan
ish's
books are being gone over. Trelawney's have
already
been closely inspected by a man who can
smell
a swindle from a distance. This interview has
been
a lengthy one, but for a purpose. As we talk, officials are
sequestering your records and files by
virtue
of a special warrant issued from Whitehall.
The
Crown considers England's transportation sys
tem
vital to national security. I cautioned them to
locate
your payment to McTigue, which must have
been
made today. I'm rather interested in how much you gave him for
killing three men."

Chasseur's
face had reflected a kaleidoscope of
emotions
but was now almost placid, resigned.
"I
suppose, in the fashion of Dr. Watson's pub
lished
case histories, that you were on to me from
the
very start?"

"I
should have been," admitted Holmes. "Why
did
you, reputed to be astute, go to such pains to
alienate
me from the case? For that is what you did
at
the very beginning."

Chasseur
shrugged and reached casually toward
a
small drawer on his right, but I was having none
of
that. My Smith-Webley came into view with
rather
good speed, I thought. Somehow my alert
ness
did not seem to faze the man, for he smiled a
crooked
smile and displayed a rubber casing in his
left
hand. It had a button arrangement on the top
over
which his thumb hovered. I noted a con
necting
wire running down the leg of the table
beside
him.

"I
rather thought the drawer would distract
you,"
he said. "If you try to use that firearm, you'll kill every man
in this room. I have but to press on
this
button and I release a charge of electricity
from
a wet cell battery, which will explode enough
dynamite
hidden under the floorboards to blow us to pieces. Gentlemen, I have
lived lavishly, but
always one step from
exposure. The excitement, the
zest of
having dishonor and disgrace at my elbow
constantly,
lent a certain vitality and vigor to my aging bones, much as the
frost of winter lends
strength to the
sap of trees and flavor to the fruit they produce. But I had to be
prepared for the
inevitable, since I
figured to face it eventually; and I was determined to go out with as
much color and
éclat as I could."

"I
don't believe you are prepared to destroy
yourself,"
said Holmes in a calm voice.

"While
there is the slightest chance, one does not
embrace
that idea," admitted the exposed tycoon.
"But
I can use my device to buy time. It's my
standard
procedure."

His
eyes speared me. "Drop that revolver, or
you'll
have the lives of all around you on your
conscience,
to say nothing of losing your own."

Since
Holmes nodded, I slowly laid my Smith-
Webley
on the oak table.

Chasseur
chuckled. "It's probably an impossible
thing,
but I'm going to herd you gentlemen to the far end of the room. I'll
be able to reach the door
and secure it
behind me before you can take action.
Perhaps
you'll track me down. The odds favor it.
But
at least I'll have a running start."

I
had to admit that Chasseur held us in checkmate. I was horrified
when Holmes began to rise from his seat on the bench. His movement
drew
Chasseur's eye, and the financial
charlatan raised the button device in his hand, as though prepared
to
end it for us all. In that moment, when Chasseur's eyes were
glued to the great detective, the
man no
one was considering moved. My revolver
was
useless, but there was a walking weapon
present
who had the uncanny ability to fade into
whatever
background he found himself. Wakefield
Orloff
had positioned himself quietly against the
wall
of the room and had remained there, silent
and
unmoving, throughout the revelation and
drama
that followed it. Now his right hand went to
the
back of his neck and then came forward and down. There was a thud and
that wicked Spanish throwing knife that invariably rested in a
chamois sheath between his shoulder-blades was buried in
the
leg of the table beside Chasseur. The Tycoon's
finger
stabbed at the button in his hand and my
heart
seemed in my throat; but there was no blast
of
explosives—no carnage, destruction, or death.
Orloff's
knife had severed the wire neatly, and
Chasseur's
dynamite trap had been defused.

I
swept up my gun, but already Orloff was beside
Chasseur,
affixing manacles to his wrists. There
was
a universal sigh of relief from those present to
which
I contributed.

Chapter
21

Aftermath

TWO
MONTHS had passed since the conclusion of
what
I titled "The Adventure of the Treasure
Train."
A bright morning sun had dispelled the fog
of
the previous night and was streaming into our sitting room. Breakfast
had come and gone. I was
collecting my
notes on the schemes of Alvidon
Chasseur,
with the thought of recording the matter
for
posterity. Holmes, as was his custom, was
perusing
the morning papers.

"Here
now, Watson," he said suddenly. "We are
mentioned
by the press and in connection with a
strange
matter indeed."

I
abandoned my work, intrigued of course, and somewhat surprised that
Holmes was not regard
ing me with
twinkling eyes, for he viewed newspa
per
accounts of his exploits with a humorous
attitude.
Instead, there was a faraway look in his
eyes
as he folded the journal in half to facilitate
reading
it to me.

MYSTERIOUS
MURDER IN HOLLAND

In
Liege but yesterday a resident of the city
was
felled by what the citizenry are referring
to
as "the bullet from the sky." Near the town square, Sydney
Kokanour, said to be a travel
ing
salesman, was killed instantly by a bullet
in
his heart. He had lived quietly in Liege
since
1891 and was not known to have ene
mies.
Though baffled, the local police have
approached
the case with the expertise of England's own Sherlock Holmes. The
bullet still being in the body, they have established, through the
new science of ballistics, that it was fired from a Sharps rifle, a
weapon
manufactured in America.
No one with a rifle
was seen
anywhere near the vicinity; and there is considerable feeling that
the gun
might have been fired by
mistake, with the bullet, almost spent, unfortunately claiming a
victim. Chief Inspector Pyrott of the Liege Police does not concur
with this, citing the
notorious
range of the Sharps Company product. He is of the opinion that
some enemy of
Kokanour from
overseas is behind the matter. An extensive search for such a man is
under
way.