"He give me half a dollar," whispered the night-porter suddenly. "Lordlummycharley, maybe?"
"Ah, blow your half-crown," said the other in lordly callousness. "Sh! Keep quiet, and keep away from that door! Steady. Your half-crown's safe enough. That came out of the change I gave him. But listen: here's what I think. All four of those notes were counterfeit, and they were pretty nearly perfect counterfeits. I'll just bet you there's only one man in England who could have made 'em. I wasn't altogether satisfied with this `Blake' and his `secretary' when they came in here; that's why I made 'em pay in advance. And I'll bet you, my lad, that we've caught two members of the Willoughby gang."
Evelyn faintly gurgled in the dark. The night-porter, in a series of grunts, appeared to be registering a question or a protest. I do not know what sound your heart may be presumed to make when it goes into your boots, as mine did then; but we were very mixed and onomatopoetic together.
"Don't you read the newspapers?" demanded the clerk. "Shh! SHH! Quiet. It's been all over the front page of the Post and the World for the last fortnight. Willoughby was the American forger — best of his kind in the world. Super-engraver. They knew he was over here, and they knew he had a plant for manufacturing the stuff somewhere in the West Country
"Ah," agreed the porter, "but —‘
"I know. They caught Willoughby last week and found his plant near Torquay. Willoughby started shooting, and barricaded himself in; they had to shoot to get him, and they got him through the head. There was eight or ten thousand pounds' worth of counterfeit stuff in his plant. The inquest is next week-"
I could have bowed in the dark. For now we might perceive, unrolled in beautiful simplicity, the whole story of the cross-tangle as it concerned the money and as it concerned Joseph Serpos and as it concerned the elusive Willoughby case. When I had been arrested at Moreton Abbott in mistake for Serpos, and the sergeant had talked on the 'phone to Torquay, it now became clear why the sergeant had been so hilariously amused. "And he probably thought he was doing well, I suppose, the poor fool!" Also I recalled Charters's words to me on the phone, when he had explained how Serpos had robbed his safe without knowing that the contents of the safe were exhibits in the Willoughby case. "He wasn't here at the time we caught Willoughby. The fool!" In other words, Mr. Joseph Serpos had made plans as elaborate as a master-criminal's in order to pinch a sackful of counterfeit money.
However, it explained Serpos's unusual conduct when he was caught. It explained why be had first broken down almost in tears; and why, when his wits pulled together, he said with bogus humility that he wished to go back and take his medicine: the whole Uriah-Heepish behaviour with the shrewd look behind it. For he realized what he had done. He also realized that no very steep charge would be pressed against him. And yet… and yet…
And yet, 1 realized, this was no help to us in our situation. The clerk was speaking again.
"There were two or three others in that Willoughby gang," he persisted. "And I tell you I know that's who they are. I've got a gun. It's that one that's been downstairs in the drawer. It hasn't been fired in years, but it's loaded, and-"