"Wait! wait!" she said, with her arms round him. "You are innocent, and your innocence will be proved. You employ Jasher. I shall ask Mr. Tracey to help me."
CHAPTER XIII
[ON THE TRACK]
Mr. Jasher was a man who in his time had played many parts on the stage of the world. He loved money, and the ease and comfort which a judicious expenditure of money would procure. But he was not sufficiently successful in making an income. Several ventures had turned out badly before he opened his private inquiry-office, and hitherto that had not seemed likely to be a triumph. The work was hard and the pay not very good, and for some months Mr. Jasher had been contemplating the wisdom of giving up the business and starting as a theatrical manager. He was fond of the stage, and in the United States he had produced several dramas at a dead loss. But the English people being less clever than the Yankees, Jasher thought he would again venture on a theatrical agency.
It was about this time that Professor Bocaros called to see him. A chance of making a great deal of money out of the simple scholar presented itself to Jasher, and he took up the matter himself. It was so difficult that the detective--for so he was in fact--did not think it wise to trust the elucidation of the mystery to meaner hands. He resolved to attend to it personally, and charge accordingly. The discovery that the money had passed to Calvert was not pleasing to Jasher, as he had now to deal with a man more shrewd and less inclined to pay largely. However, supported by Bocaros, Jasher called at the Bloomsbury lodgings of the actor, and ended, as has been seen, in getting the business of hunting down the assassin of Flora Brand. It was not an easy mystery to unravel.
"But the first thing to be done," said Mr. Jasher to himself in the solitude of his office, "is to find out what sort of a cove Calvert is. If he's what I call a stinger, I'll have to go straight. If he ain't, I'll buckle to and do my best. But in any way I'll get all the money I can out of him."
In pursuance of this amiable resolve, Jasher sought out several theatrical folk whom he knew well. The report of Calvert was that he had a strong will, but was very good-natured. It was considered that he would never be an actor, and old-fashioned stagers believed that it was merely through his good looks and his fashionable clothes he obtained engagements. But Jasher knew the jealousy of those connected with the green-room, and determined to see Calvert act with his own eyes. According to the force and talent displayed by the young man, he might be able to estimate the depth of his character.
Having thus made up his mind, Jasher treated himself to a seat in the pit of the Frivolity Theatre. The audience was small as the play was not a great success. "It's a good thing he's got this fortune," was the agent's reflection, "as this piece won't run long; and being out of an engagement, he wouldn't have much chance of marrying that girl he's sweet on, according to old Bocaros."
The play was not a good one; the best scene being in the middle act, wherein a masked ball took place. Calvert was dressed as a Venetian, and looked remarkably handsome in black velvet and gold. During the scene he had to draw his dagger, and this drew Jasher's attention to the fact that he wore such a weapon. But he did not give the matter much thought. It was only when Arnold came on in the last act in a tweed suit with a reddish pointed beard that he started. It occurred to him that he had heard from a friend in the police of how the young man met by Mulligan had been thus attired. A description of the young man, save in a vague way, had not been put into the papers. And probably Jasher, but that his mind was full of the murder, would not have noticed the dress and general appearance. As it was, the remembrance of the dagger and the fact of the tweed suit and pointed beard made him reflect. Also the fact that Arnold was engaged to the sister-in-law of the man to whom the villa belonged made him lay unusual stress on the matter.
"Blest if I don't think he's got something to do with the matter, professor," he said to Bocaros that same evening.