The Yellow Face

by Fred M. White

"Of course, I know nothing whatever about this violin mystery," he said. "I have quite enough to do to look after the native element in the way of rascality. But there are ways and means of getting the better of the gentle foreigner."

"But I always understood that Scotland Yard employed detectives of all nationalities?" Rigby observed. "Haven't you got anybody on your staff with a knowledge of international crime?"

Bates responded that such was the case. If the friends liked, he would go with them at once to the residence of Superintendent Zimburg, and there see what could be done. "As far as I am personally concerned, my own hands are very full to-night."

"Your sergeant told us that this was a very interesting case," Jack suggested. "Is it possible that this burglary was the work of some guests invited to the house?"

"Honestly, I believe it to be the case," Bates proceeded to explain. "After all said and done, modern society is a pretty queer mixture. Given a good presence and a good address, plus the appearance of the possession of money, it is quite possible for a man to get anywhere. Take a big reception like the one that Lord Longworth gave to-night. Now, it would be quite fair to assume that his lordship and his wife were not personally acquainted with at least a third of the guests present. Somebody takes a friend, and that friend takes somebody else, and there you are. Of course, you are aware of the fact that at all big weddings nowadays it is absolutely necessary to employ detectives. To-night's business was exceedingly neat and novel, and might have been wonderfully successful but for the footman. All the same I am quite certain that the thing was executed by somebody who is actually a guest of his lordship."

"And not so much as a clue left behind," Jack laughed.

"Well, there is, and there isn't," Bates admitted. "I had a good look round when everybody was gone, and the only thing I could lay my hands on was this wonderful silk muffler. Nobody owned it; the injured footman declares that he saw a gentleman arriving earlier in the evening who had this muffler about his neck. Here was a fine clue, I thought to myself. And then Mrs. Montague comes back in her brougham and claims this thing as her own. Distinctly annoying, don't you think?"

"Annoying enough," Rigby agreed; "but is the muffler in question so very much out of the common?"

Bates was emphatically of the opinion that such was the case. He produced the thing from his pocket, and the three men proceeded to examine it in the light of a street lamp. Jack appeared as if about to say something, then suddenly changed his mind, and began to whistle instead. They came at length once more to Shannon Street police station, where Bates telephoned to Superintendent Zimburg, asking the latter if he would come round immediately. He arrived a few moments later--a slim, dark little man, with a vivacious manner and a beard with an interrogative cock to it. He smiled in a greasy sort of way at the suggestion that there might be some prominent foreign scoundrel in London with whom he was not acquainted.

"I know the whole gang," he said. "That is exactly my business. Have I seen anything, or do I know anything of this Padini? Probably I do, but not under that name. Oh, yes, it is quite a usual thing for some of the pink of cosmopolitan rascals to be talented. For instance, I know at least three who might have made great names as artists, only they prefer the seamy side of life. There is another who might have been a poet. Therefore, I see no reason why this Padini, or whatever his proper name may be, should not be a really great violinist. If you have such a thing as a portrait----"