SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE SECTION
chattering masses nf the poor. The
section was Inrfly foreign. The
patches of color in Homo Italian shawl,
the long coats hikI peaked headgear of
some mniijik, tlm clatter of the 1
leots seemed all the stranger from the
sullen Inulon background of moan
shops, dingy lodgings, and low beer
houses. For, in the shadows of that
underworld of the great metropolis,
sodden faces, guttural oaths, dingy rngs,
the blow that precedes the word,
are the manifestations of the native
born.
In a side street, the rah diew to a
standstill. It was the mortuary, the
inspector told me. A young police
man nt the door touched his hat, and
led the way down a passage to a bare
tone chamber. On a slab in the center
the body lay with an elderly man in
ill-fitting dot hen bending over it.
He looked up as we cnlered, nnd
nodded to the inspector.
"You were quite right, Peace," he
said cheerfully; "chloroform first, stran
gling afterwards."
"They took ii risks, Dr. Chappie."
"They made a dean job of it," said
the dderly man, looking down nt the
slab with his thumbs in his waistcoat
pockets. "Never saw neater work
since well, since 1 was invalided
home from India."
"ThligS?"
"Yes; they did it nih as well as a
Thug in regular practice."
The callous brutality of the con
versation filled me with disgust. I
turned away, leaning against the wall
with a feeling of nausea.
"Ami now, if I may tremble you,
Mr. Phillips, will you look at this
poor fellow, and see if you can recog
nize him?" said Peace.
I knew him well enough. The black
board, the thin, hawk nose, the high
and noble forehead were not easily
forgotten. Tiilman had introduced
me to him at the Art Club's Keocp
tion in July, whispering that he was
a Pole and a neighbor of his a deuced
queer fish, though a clever one. He
had exhibited a bust of Nero at the
Academy, which attracted much at
tcnt ion.
"And his name?" asked the inspec
tor. "Amaroff. I believe him to be from
Poland; that is about all I know of
him."
"Mow did you come to meet him?"
I told him of my int roduct ion. Would
I, he asked, give him Talman's ad
dress? Most certainly No. 4 Harden
place, off the King's road, Chelsea.
I had no objection whatever to Talman
being roused at one in the morning.
By nil means let the old rascal be
turned out of bed ami cross-examined.
His language would be a revelation to
the police it would, really.
The inspector left me on the door
Btep for a few minutes, while he whis
jxTcd to two shabbily dressed men who
lounged out of the darkness, and
disappeared with the same lack of
ostentation. Then we entered our
cub, which had waited, and trotted
westward, the very air growing clearer
as it seemed to me, when the under
world of poverty fell nw.iy behind us.
It was some time before I spoke, and
then it was to ask for a solution to
certain puzzles that had been form
ing in my brain.
"You sail he had been robbed?"
I began.
"Yes, Mr. Phillips. They had pone
through his pockets with every atten
tion to detail."
"Then how did you know he was
a sculptor?"
"lie had been called away in a hurry,
There was modelling clay in his finger
nails, and a splash of plaster on his
right trousor leg. It was quite simple,
as you Bee."
His reply was ingenious, and I
liked the inspector the belter for it.
The man had something more in him
than a civil tongue and a pleasing man
ner. "Tell mo what else did you learn?''
"That he wns murdered in a place
with a sanded floor, probably nt no
great distance from Leman street,
seeing that they carried him there on
a coster's barrow."
"I am not a reporter," I snid. "I
do not want guess-work."
"I shall probably be able to prove
my words in twenty-four hours."
"And why not now?"
"There are good reasons."
'Oh, very well," I said sulkily; and
we drove on through the night in
silence.
He left me at my door amid polite
assurances that I should not again
be troubled in the matter. I told him
quite frankly that I was very glad to
hear it.
I did not sleep more than eight
hours that night, ami was quite un
fitted for work in the morning. I
roamed about my studio with nerves
on edge. I cursed Pence nnd all his
iloings. Kvcn the papers gave me no
further information of this exasperating
business, being loaded with the pre
parations for the Czar's reception in
Paris, which was due in two days.
In the end I sank so far as to send
old Jacob up to the inspector's rooms
for the latest news, but he had been
out since daybreak.
About twelve 1 wandered off to the
club. The sight of Talman was a very
present joy to me. Ho was engaged
in denouncing the police to a select
circle, choosing ns his text that the
Fniilishman's house is his castle. 1
offered my sincere sympathy when
he told me that he had been invaded
at one in the morning by inquiring
detectives. I suggested that he should
write to the Times about it. He said
he had already done so. Incidentally
he mentioned that Amaroff's address
had been No. 21 Harden place.
I lunched at the little table by
the window; but it was in the smoking
room afterwards that the idea oc
curred to me. I fought against it for
some time, but the temptation in
creased upon consideration. Finally I
yielded, and told the waiter to call a
cab. 1 would myself have a look at
the dead man's studio.
I dismissed the hansom at the
turning off Kind's road and walked
down Harden place on foot. It was
an eddy in the rush of London im
provement a pool of silence in its
roaring traffic. There were trees in
the little gardens. The golds and
browns of the withering leaves pooped
and rustled over the old brick walls.
Several studios I noticed it was evi
dently an artists' quarter before I
stopped in front of No. 21.
The studio a fair-sized barn of
modern brick fronted on the street.
The double doors through which a
sculptor's larger work may pasa were
flanked by a little side, door painted
a staring and most objectionable green.
On the right the roof of a red-tiled
shed crept up to long windows under
the eaves. The side door stood ajar
a most urgent invitation to my curios
ity. After all, I argued, a studio re
mains a place whore the strict rules
of etiquette may be avoided, even
though its owner be dead. And so,
without troubling further in the matter,
I pushed the door gently open, and
walked into a short passage, the
further end of which was barred with
heavy curtains of failed plush. Bo
yond them I could hear a whisper of
voices. I drew back the edge of a
curtain and pooped within.
In the center of the big room was a
tall pedestal upon which was sot the
bust of Nero, which had won no
small measure of fame for poor Amaroff
in that year's Academy. Under the
proud nnd merciless features of the
Roman Kmpcror stood Inspector Peace
smoking a cigarette and talking to
a big follow with a thick black beard.
A couple of men kneeling at their
feet were replacing a mass of loose
papers in the drawers of a roller-top
desk that had boon pulled some dis
tance from the wall. .
I was just about to announce my
self, when one of the men knocked
over a brass candlestick which stood
on the desk, so that it rolled to the
further side. With a grunt of annoy
ance, he stepped leisurely round and
dropped on his knees to recover it.
Once out of sight of his companions,
however, he whipped out a square of
wax from his pocket, aiid with extra
ordinary rapidity took an impression
from a key that he had kept con
cealed in his hand. It was all over
in five seconds, and from the shelter
the desk gave to him, no one but my
self could have been the wiser. He
rose, replaced the candlestick, and con
tinued his work.
Whether the fellow had played
his companion a trick or not, I had no
desire to be caught acting the spy.
So, pulling the curtains aside, I walked
into the room. They all turned quickly
upon me, the black-bearded man
staring hard as in attempting to recall
my face. But I'eace was the first
to speak.
"tlood afternoon, Mr. Phillips," he
said, as if I were a visitor he had
expected "You are just in time to
drive me b'ack. Have you a cab
waiting?"
"No." I hesitated.
"It's of no consequence. We can
find another at the top of the street.
And now, Mr. Nicolin," he continued,
turning to the big man, who had
never taken his eyes off me, "arc you
quite satisfied, or do you wish your
men to make a further search?"
"No, Mr. Insboctor," he answered,
with a heavy foreign accent, "we
are quite content. Noding more is
necessary."
"Shall you be wanting to come
again?"
"No for us it is sufficient. It is
for you to continue. Mr. Insboctor.
You tink you will catch those men
who kill him, hein?"
"We shall try," said Peace, with a
modest droop of the eyes.
"Ach but where can there be cer
tainty in our lives? Come now, my
children, lot us be going. Alexandre,
you have the door-key of the studio;
give him to the Insboctor here."
So it was the door-key, thought I,
of which Mr. Alexandre obtained a
memento behind the roller-top desk!
Peace gave a polite good-bye to
his companions on the step, locked up
the little green door, and then started
down the street at my side.
"I had no business to come poking
my nose flito your affairs," I said,
"Anything you say I shall thoroughly
deserve."
"Don't apologize," he smiled. "I
was pleased to see you."
"And why?"
'You can do better things than
remain a wealthy dilettante, Mr. Phil
lips. You are too broad in the shoul
ders, too clear in the head, for living
i the world that is dead. Such little
incidents as these they drag you
out of the shell you are building about
you. That is why I was pleased to
see you. I have spoken plainl are
you offended?"
"Oh, no," 1 said, waving my stick
to a passing hansom, though I did
not refer aiiain to the topic which I
foresaw was likely to become person
ally offensive to mo.
He sat ba a in his corner of the
cab, filling his pi.-e with dextrous
fingers, while 1 watched him out of
the corner of my eye. When it wt.
well alight, he began again on a now
subject.
"London's a queer place," he sai l,
"though perhaps you have not had t.io
time to find it out. There are for
eign colonies, with their own religions
and olu an I politics, working t icir
way through life just ns if tin y we;e in
Odessa or Hamburg or Milan. There
are refugees Heaven know s how many,
for we do not that have fled bo
fore all the despotisms that succeeded
and all the revolutions that failed
from Siam to the Argentine. Tolstoi
fanatics, dishonest presidents, anar
chists, royalists, Armenians, Turks,
Carlists, and the dwellers in Meso
potamia a finer collection than oven
America itself can show. On the Con
tinentwell, we should be running
them in, and they would be throwing
bombs. But here no one troubles
them so long as they pay rent and
taxes, nnd keep their hands out of
each other's pockets or from each
other's throats. They understand
us, too, and stop playing at assas
sins nnd conspirators. But once in
a while habit is too strong for them,
ami something happens."
"As it happened to Amaroff?"
"Yes as it happened to Amaroff."
"It was a political crime?"
"Yes."
"And the reasons?"
"They have the advantage of sim
plicity. Amaroff was a member of
the Russian secret -service, detailed
to mix with and observe the Nihilist
refugees. The Czar enters Paris in
two days, and when the Czar travels
the political police of all the capitaU
are kept on the run. 1 suppose Amaroff
showed an excess of zeal that made
his absence from London desirable.
Anyway, he was found dead, and
the Russians reasonably conclude it
is the Nihilists who killed him."
"Who were those men in the studio?"
"The big fellow was Nicolin, the
head of the Russian service over hero.
I don't know a bettor man in his
profession nor one with fewer scruples.
The other two were assistants. They
came down to the Yard this morning
with a request that they might search
the studio for certain private papers
which Amaroff had and which belonged
to them. So we fixed the nppoiut
mont into w hich you have just walked."
"And they finished their search?"
"You heard them say so."
"Kxactly, but why, then, did thev
want, an impression of the studio
key?"
He turned upon me with a sudden
impatience in his eyes.
"What do you moan?" he asked.
I told him of my arrival, and what
I had seen from my post behind the
curtains of the doorway. He did
not speak when I had finished, but.
sat, pulling at his short pipe, and
staring out over the horse's oars. So
we arrived at our door.
"If you have further news tonight
will you call in before going to bod?"
I asked him as we stood on the pave
ment. "I cannot promise you that. I have
some important inquiries to make in
the F.ast Find this evening, and I do
not know when I shall return."
I suppose I looked depressed at his
answer; indeed the prospect of a
lonely evening in my rooms with such
a mystery in course of solution out
side, seemed oddly distasteful to me."
"It is a rough district, as you know."
he said, watching me; "but would
you care to come along?"
"There is nothing I should like bet
tor," I answered simply.
(Continued on Pag 10)
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