“I said ‘Calcott,’” Tulmin retorted, in no way perturbed.
“Yes, I heard you, but I don’t know what it means,” Sir Philip made answer.
“It’s a clever bluff,” Tulmin responded. “And I’ve heard of doubles, of course. But do you know that Felter is in London”—Felter was head of the Chicago detective bureau, and a man whom the late Calcott had good reason to fear—“on some stunt or other and looking as foxy as ever? It gave me a turn of the shivers when I ran up against him suddenly in Oxford Street. I wonder if you could persuade him to believe in doubles or whether he might not want to see that scar on your left knee. He put it there, you know, didn’t he, and could identify it. Anyway, I am looking for a job as confidential man—valet, secretary—something soft and clean and well-paid. I am tired of being a ‘crook.’”
What Tulmin actually would have done, or even could have done had Clevedon bluffed it out, I don’t know. But apparently the latter funked the risk and the end of it was that Tulmin was installed at White Towers as Sir Philip Clevedon’s confidential valet. That, in brief, was the story Stillman told me, nor was it difficult to supply the missing lines. Clevedon had never expected to succeed to the title since there were several lives in front of him, but they disappeared one by one, and accordingly he shed his Calcott existence like a discarded hat. He was accepted on this side without question or demur, and indeed, there seems to have been no doubt regarding his identity. The whole story was extremely interesting, but I did not see that so far it helped much in the solution of my own particular mystery. I was a good deal more concerned with Thoyne’s part in the play.
“The hold Tulmin had over Clevedon seems clear enough,” I observed reflectively. “But I don’t quite see how he managed to hook Thoyne on unless Thoyne was also—”
“No, there is nothing against Mr. Thoyne,” Stillman responded promptly and decisively. “He is paying Tulmin to keep out of the way, but I think that is simply so that there may be no scandal—no public identification of Clevedon with Calcott.”
“Then he knew that Clevedon was Calcott?”
“Yes, Tulmin says so.”
“I wonder how he knew.”
“I am not sure about that, but Tulmin was positive that he did know, and that he was keeping Tulmin out of the way so as to keep the name of Clevedon out of the mess. Isn’t Thoyne marrying into the Clevedon family? Anyway,” Stillman added, with a queer chuckle, “Tulmin doesn’t expect him to go on paying for ever. ‘As long as it lasts,’ in his own phrase. The hold isn’t a very strong one; and I don’t think myself Tulmin will turn nasty when the money stops. His own record isn’t so clean that he need court publicity.”