I was only just in time. Raising the hammer, I brought it down with a crushing blow upon his skull.
Uttering a loud cry of pain, he reeled backwards and fell.
Without a moment’s hesitation I cast the hammer aside, thrust the revolver into my pocket, and grasping the box, dashed downstairs to the street door.
At that moment I heard a man passing outside, whistling a music-hall air. It was Grinevitch; I knew that no one was watching outside. Opening the door, I carried the box down the steps and hurried quickly away in the opposite direction to that by which I had approached. Walking down Deacon Street, in order to return to the Walworth Road, I was surprised to find so many police constables, for fully a dozen passed me. Nevertheless, I was unmolested, and on gaining the main thoroughfare hailed a passing hansom, and placing the box on the seat beside me, drove to my chambers.
I had not been joined by Grinevitch as I had arranged, and supposed that he had remained behind to ascertain the cause of the sudden arrival of the police.
It was well that I left the house as quickly as I did, for I afterwards learnt that a raid was made upon the place almost immediately. But beyond finding three rooms full of furniture, some locksmith’s tools, and the chief spy lying insensible, their vigilance was unrewarded.
A week later Guibaud had recovered from the blow I had dealt him, and I was again “shadowing” him. He was walking along the Strand, in the direction of Trafalgar Square, when I passed him and appeared to suddenly recognise him. After a few minutes’ conversation I found he was going into Oxford Street, therefore I proposed that he should accompany me along Shaftesbury Avenue, and call at my chambers for a whisky and soda, an arrangement to which he made no objection.
Soon afterwards he sat before my sitting-room fire admiring the artistic decorations of my little flat, while I stood upon the hearthrug smoking a cigarette, watching him with anxious expectation. He was foolishly unsuspicious, or he would not have drunk the liquor I offered him.
Almost immediately after emptying his glass he became dazed.