Fay was gone with a finishing laugh. He turned into the Strand and hurried eastward. He knew of a place where often he had spent the night when the Yard was close on his heels in days gone by. This lodging for a night was run by an ex-fence who bought only diamonds out of their settings or large Bank of England notes. Clanson was his name.
Fay turned a corner, leaned against the wall and lighted a cigarette in the shadow of a doorway, within which was a deep, blue light. A constable stood across the street in an attitude of resignation. There was no other name for it.
The cracksman shifted his coat from his right arm to his left, dropped the cigarette to his feet and stepped briskly toward the same corner he had rounded. It was an old trick of a man who feared a shadow. He saw none. A “growler� or four wheeler, drawn by a decrepit nag, rattled over the asphalt, going toward the West End.
Assured, Fay turned and hurried up the side street until he reached a small temperance hotel, at the side of which was a shop bearing the ancient and honorable title of: “M. Clanson, Dealer in Antiques and Foreign Monies.�
Fay found a handle which he pulled twice, then twice more after a five-second wait. He repeated the signal, known of old. A light showed at the back of the shop. It came toward the front. Clanson, in night cap and with a candle held over his head, pressed his bloated face to the dusty pane of the door. His nose grew white on the tip, as he stared at Fay. He drew back with a smirk and started removing two chains and rattling at least one key. The door opened on a third chain.
“A passenger from the west,� said Fay, using an old countersign.
Clanson growled and closed the door. The last chain was guided from its channel. The door opened
wide. Fay stepped in briskly. He did not look back of him.
“From the west,� he said as Clanson locked the door. “I’ve a scratch or two I want changed.�
“Let’s see,� said the ex-fence, staring at Fay and then at the drippings from the candle. “It’s been six, no five years, since you were in here. Much water has flowed through the Thames since then.�