The Romance of the Secret Service Fund - Fred M. White (speld decodable readers TXT) 📗
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The Romance of the Secret Service Fund
Frederick Merrick White
THE MAZAROFF RIFLENEWTON MOORE came into the War Office in response to a code telegram and
a hint that speed was the essence of the contract. Sir George Morley
plunged immediately into his subject.
“I’ve got a pretty case for you,” he said. “I suppose you have never
heard of such a thing as the Mazaroff rifle?”
Moore admitted his ignorance. He opined that it was something new, and
that something had gone wrong with the lethal weapon in question.
“Quite right, and it will be your business to recover it,” Sir George
explained. “The gun is the invention of a clever young Russian, Nicholas
Mazaroff by name. We have tested the weapon, which, as a matter of fact,
we have purchased from Mazaroff. The rifle is destined to entirely
revolutionise infantry tactics, and, indeed, it is a most wonderful
affair. The projectile is fired by liquid air, there are no cartridges,
and, as there is practically no friction beyond the passage of the bullet
from the barrel, it is possible to fire the rifle some four hundred times
before recharging. In addition, there is absolutely no smoke and no
noise. You can imagine the value of the discovery.”
“I can indeed,” Moore observed. “I should very much like to see it.”
“And I should like you to see it of all things,” Sir George said drily;
“indeed, I hope you will be the very first to see it, considering that
the gun and its sectional plans have been stolen.”
Newton Moore smiled. He knew now why he had been sent for.
“Stolen from here, Sir George?” he asked.
“Stolen from here yesterday afternoon by means of a trick. Mazaroff
called to see me, but I was very busy. Then he asked to see my assistant,
Colonel Parkinson. He seemed to be in considerable trouble, so Parkinson
told me. He had discovered a flaw in his rifle, a tendency for the
projectile to jam, which constituted a danger to the marksman. Could he
have the rifle and the plans for a day or two, he asked? Naturally, there
was no objection to this, and the boon was granted. Mazaroff came here an
hour ago, and when I asked him if he had remedied the defect, he
paralysed me by declaring that he knew nothing whatever about the caller
yesterday; indeed, he is prepared to prove that he was in Liverpool till
a late hour last night. Some clever rascal impersonated him and got clear
away with the booty.”
“I presume Colonel Parkinson knew Mazaroff?”
“Not very well, but well enough to have no doubt as to his identity.
Naturally, Parkinson is fearfully upset over the business; indeed, he
seems to fancy that Mazaroff is lying to us. Mazaroff generally comes
here in a queer, old Inverness cloak, with ragged braid, and a shovel hat
with a brown stain on the left side. Parkinson swears that he noticed
both these things yesterday.”
“I should like to see Mazaroff,” Moore replied.
Sir George touched a bell, and from an inner room a young man, with a
high, broad forehead, and dark, restless eyes, emerged. He was badly
dressed, and, sooth to say, not over clean. Newton Moore’s half-shy
glance took him in from head to foot with the swiftness of a snapshot.
“This is the Russian gentleman I spoke of,” said Sir George. “Mr. Newton
Moore.”
“Russian only in name,” said Mazaroff swiftly. “I am English. If you help
me to get my gun back I shall never be sufficiently grateful.”
“I am going to have a good try,” Moore replied. “Meanwhile, I shall
require your undivided attention for some little time. I should like to
walk with you as far as your lodgings and have a chat with you there.”
Moore had made up his mind as to his man. He felt perfectly convinced
that he was speaking the truth. He piloted Mazaroff into the street, and
then took his arm.
“I am going to get you to conduct me to your rooms,” he said. “And I am
going to ask you a prodigious lot of questions. First, and most important
-does anyone, to your knowledge, know of the new rifle?”
“Not a soul; I had a friend, a partner two years ago, who saw the thing
nearly complete, but he is dead.”
“Your partner might have mentioned the matter to somebody else.”
“He might. Poor Franz was of a convivial nature. He did not possess the
real secret.”
“No, but he might have hinted to somebody that you were on the verge of a
gigantic discovery. That somebody might have kept his eye upon you; he
might have seen you coming from and going into the War Office.”
Mazaroff nodded gravely. All these things were on the knees of the gods.
“At any rate somebody must have known, and somebody must have
impersonated you,” Moore proceeded. “You haven’t a notion who it was, so
I will not bother you any further in that direction. I have to look for a
cool and clever scoundrel, and one, moreover, who is a consummate actor.”
“Cool enough,” Mazaroff said drily, “seeing that the fellow actually had
the impudence to pass himself off on my landlady as myself, and borrow my
hat and Inverness-the ones I am wearing now-and cool enough to
return them.”
All this Mazaroff’s landlady subsequently confirmed. She had known, of
course, that her lodger had gone to Liverpool on business, and she had
been surprised to see him return. The alter ego had muttered something
about being suddenly recalled; he had taken off a frock coat and tall hat
similar to those Mazaroff had used to travel in, and he had gone out
immediately with the older and more familar garments.
“You had no suspicions?” Moore. asked. The landlady was fat, but by no
means scant of breath. It was the misfortune of a lady who had fallen
from high social status that she was compelled to inhabit a house of
considerable gloom. Furthermore, her eyes were not the limpid orbs into
which many lovers had once looked languishingly. Was a body to blame when
slippery rascals were about?
“Nobody is blaming a body,” Newton Moore smiled. “I don�t think we need
trouble you any more, Mrs. Jarrett.”
Mrs. Jarrett departed with an avowed resolution to “have the law” of
somebody or other over this business, and a blissful silence followed.
Mazaroff had stripped off his hat and coat.
“You must have been carefully watched yesterday,” Moore observed. “I
suppose this is the hat and cloak your double borrowed?”
Mazaroff nodded, and Moore proceeded to examine the cloak. It was just
possible that the thief might have left some clue, however small. Moore
turned out the pockets.
“I am certain you will find nothing there,” said Mazaroff. “There is a
hole in both pockets, and I am careful to carry nothing in them.”
“Nothing small, I suppose you mean,” Moore replied as he brought to light
some dingy looking papers folded like a brief. He threw the bundle on the
table, and Mazaroff proceeded to examine it languidly. A puzzled look
came over his face,
“These are not mine,” he declared. “I never saw them before.”
There were some score or more sheets fastened together with a brass stud.
The sheets were typed, the letterpress was in the form of a dialogue. In
fact the whole formed a play-part from some comedy or drama.
“This is a most important. discovery,” Moore observed. “Our friend must
have been studying this on his way along and forgot it finally. We know
now what I have suspected all along-that the man who impersonated you
was by profession an actor. That is something gained.”
Mazaroff caught a little of his companion’s excitement.
“You can go farther,” he cried. “You can find who this belongs to.”
“Precisely what I am going to do,” said Moore. “It is a fair inference
that our man is playing in a new comedy or is taking the part of somebody
else at short notice, or he could not have been learning this up in the
cab. I have a friend who is an inveterate theatre-goer, a man who has a
pecuniary interest in a number of playhouses, and I am in hopes that he
may be able to locate this part for me. I’ll see him at once.”
Moore drove away without further delay to Ebury Street, where dwelt the
Honourable Jimmy Manningtree, an old young man with a strong taste for
the drama, and a good notion of getting value for the money he was fond
of investing therein. He was an apple-faced individual with a keen eye
and a marvellous memory for everything connected with the stage.
“Bet you I’ll fit that dialogue to the play like a shot,” he said when
Moore had explained his errand. “Have some breakfast?”
Moore declined. Until he had identified his man, food was a physical
impossibility. Hungry as he was he felt that the first mouthful would
choke him. He took up a cigarette and lay back in a chair whilst
Manningtree pondered over the type-written sheets before him.
“Told you I’d name the lady,” he cried presently. “I don’t propose to
identify and give the precise name of the character, because you’ll be
able to do that for yourself by following the play carefully.”
“But what is the name of the play?” Moore asked impatiently.
“It is called ‘Noughts and Crosses,’ one of the most popular comedies we
have ever run at the Thespian. If you weren’t so buried in your stories
and your medicine mysteries at the War Office, you might have seen all
about it in last Monday’s papers. Go and see the show-I’ll give you a
box.”
“Then the play was produced for the first time on Saturday night,” Moore
was panting and eager on the scent at last. “Also, from what you say, the
Thespian is one of the theatres you are interested in?”
Manningtree executed a wink of amazing slyness. The Honourable Jimmy was
no mean comedian himself.
“I believe you, my boy,” he said. “I’ve got ten thousand locked up there,
and I shall get it back three times over out of ‘Noughts and Crosses.’ If
you like to have a box tonight you can.”
“You’re very kind,” Moore replied. He laid his hands across his knees to
steady them. “And, as much always wants more, I shall be greatly obliged
if you will give me the run of the theatre. In other words, can I come
behind?”
“Well, I don’t encourage that kind of thing as a rule,” Manningtree
replied, “but as I know you have some strong reason for the request, I’ll
make an exception in your favour. I don’t run my show for marbles, dear
boy. I shall be at the Thespian at ten, and then, if you send round your
card, the thing is done. Only I should like to know what you are driving
at.”
Moore smiled quietly.
“I dare say you would,” he said. “Later on perhaps. For the present my
lips are sealed. No breakfast, thanks—I couldn’t swallow a
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