the twenty-sixth of November.”
Mr Carlyle looked across curiously at his host.
“I really do not know, Max,” he replied, in his crisp, precise way. “What on earth has that got to do with it, may I inquire?”
“The only explanation of the Pont St Lin swing-bridge disaster of ’75 was the reflection of a green bengal light on a cottage window.”
Mr Carlyle smiled his indulgence privately.
“My dear chap, you mustn’t let your retentive memory of obscure happenings run away with you,” he remarked wisely. “In nine cases out of ten the obvious explanation is the true one. The difficulty, as here, lies in proving it. Now, you would like to see these men?”
“I expect so; in any case, I will see Hutchins first.”
“Both live in Holloway. Shall I ask Hutchins to come here to see you – say to-morrow? He is doing nothing.”
“No,” replied Carrados. “To-morrow I must call on my brokers and my time may be filled up.”
“Quite right; you mustn’t neglect your own affairs for this – experiment,” assented Carlyle.
“Besides, I should prefer to drop in on Hutchins at his own home. Now, Louis, enough of the honest old man for one night. I have a lovely thing by Eumenes that I want to show you. To-day is – Tuesday. Come to dinner on Sunday and pour the vials of your ridicule on my want of success.”
“That’s an amiable way of putting it,” replied Carlyle. “All right, I will.”
Two hours later Carrados was again in his study, apparently, for a wonder, sitting idle. Sometimes he smiled to himself, and once or twice he laughed a little, but for the most part his pleasant, impassive face reflected no emotion and he sat with his useless eyes tranquilly fixed on an unseen distance. It was a fantastic caprice of the man to mock his sightlessness by a parade of light, and under the soft brilliance of a dozen electric brackets the room was as bright as day. At length he stood up and rang the bell.
“I suppose Mr Greatorex isn’t still here by any chance, Parkinson?” he asked, referring to his secretary.
“I think not, sir, but I will ascertain,” replied the man.
“Never mind. Go to his room and bring me the last two files of The Times. Now” – when he returned – “turn to the earliest you have there. The date?”
“November the second.”
“That will do. Find the Money Market; it will be in the Supplement. Now look down the columns until you come to British Railways.”
“I have it, sir.”
“Central and Suburban. Read the closing price and the change.”
“Central and Suburban Ordinary, 66-1/2-67-1/2, fall 1/8. Preferred Ordinary, 81-81-1/2, no change. Deferred Ordinary, 27-1/2-27-3/4, fall 1/4. That is all, sir.”
“Now take a paper about a week on. Read the Deferred only.”
“27-27-1/4, no change.”
“Another week.”
“29-1/2-30, rise 5/8.”
“Another.”
“31-1/2-32-1/2, rise 1.”
“Very good. Now on Tuesday the twenty-seventh November.”
“31-7/8-32-3/4, rise 1/2.”
“Yes. The next day.”
“24-1/2-23-1/2, fall 9.”
“Quite so, Parkinson. There had been an accident, you see.”
“Yes, sir. Very unpleasant accident. Jane knows a person whose sister’s young man has a cousin who had his arm torn off in it – torn off at the socket, she says, sir. It seems to bring it home to one, sir.”
“That is all. Stay – in the paper you have, look down the first money column and see if there is any reference to the Central and Suburban.”
“Yes, sir. ‘City and Suburbans, which after their late depression on the projected extension of the motor bus service, had been steadily creeping up on the abandonment of the scheme, and as a result of their own excellent traffic returns, suffered a heavy slump through the lamentable accident of Thursday night. The Deferred in particular at one time fell eleven points as it was felt that the possible dividend, with which rumour has of late been busy, was now out of the question.’”
“Yes; that is all. Now you can take the papers back. And let it be a warning to you, Parkinson, not to invest your savings in speculative railway deferreds.”
“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir, I will endeavour to remember.” He lingered for a moment as he shook the file of papers level. “I may say, sir, that I have my eye on a small block of cottage property at Acton. But even cottage property scarcely seems safe from legislative depredation now, sir.”
The next day Mr Carrados called on his brokers in the city. It is to be presumed that he got through his private business quicker than he expected, for after leaving Austin Friars he continued his journey to Holloway, where he found Hutchins at home and sitting morosely before his kitchen fire. Rightly assuming that his luxuriant car would involve him in a certain amount of public attention in Klondyke Street, the blind man dismissed it some distance from the house, and walked the rest of the way, guided by the almost imperceptible touch of Parkinson’s arm.
“Here is a gentleman to see you, father,” explained Miss Hutchins, who had come to the door. She divined the relative positions of the two visitors at a glance.
“Then why don’t you take him into the parlour?” grumbled the ex-driver. His face was a testimonial of hard work and general sobriety but at the moment one might hazard from his voice and manner that he had been drinking earlier in the day.
“I don’t think that the gentleman would be impressed by the difference between our parlour and our kitchen,” replied the girl quaintly, “and it is warmer here.”
“What’s the matter with the parlour now?” demanded her father sourly. “It was good enough for your mother and me. It used to be good enough for you.”
“There is nothing the matter with it, nor with the kitchen either.” She turned impassively to the two who had followed her along the narrow passage. “Will you go in, sir?”
“I don’t want to see no gentleman,” cried Hutchins noisily. “Unless” – his manner suddenly changed to one of pitiable anxiety – “unless you’re from the Company, sir, to – to – ”
“No; I have come on Mr Carlyle’s behalf,” replied Carrados, walking to a chair as though he moved by a kind of instinct.
Hutchins laughed his wry contempt.
“Mr Carlyle!” he reiterated; “Mr Carlyle! Fat lot of good he’s been. Why don’t he do something for his money?”
“He has,” replied Carrados, with imperturbable good-humour; “he has sent me. Now, I want to ask you a few questions.”
“A
