This House to Let

by William Le Queux

But the detective was able to reassure him on this point.

"In our profession, sir, we remember everything and everybody, and we never forget a face. It is some years ago, it is true, but I recall the incidents of our meeting as if they had happened yesterday. Poor Davidson and I came down to collar that slim rascal George Burton, who, by the way, got off with a light sentence. Davidson saw you in the afternoon and gave you the option of staying away. You talked it over, and came to the conclusion that, for certain reasons, you would rather be in at the finish. Those reasons were connected with your young friend Mr. Pomfret, who was infatuated with the young woman."

"You remember everything as well as I do, Mr. Bryant. I must congratulate you on your marvellous memory, for I suppose this is only one out of hundreds of cases."

Mr. Bryant smiled, well pleased at this tribute to his capacity.

"We cultivate our small gifts, sir, in this direction. Well, we took the slim George. The girl fainted. You dragged Mr. Pomfret out of the house, and he shot himself in the small hours of the morning. It came out that he had married the young woman a day or two before, and could not face the exposure." Hugh paid a second tribute to the detective's marvellous memory. "And now, Mr. Bryant, have you any knowledge of what has become of them? People like that are never quite submerged: some day or another, like the scum they are, they will be found floating on the top again."

Bryant shook his head. "No, sir, I cannot say I have. They have not come under our observation again. Probably they are abroad under assumed names, engaged in rascally business, of course, but doing it very much sub rosa."

"Mind you, at present I have very little to go on," said Hugh. "I may have been deceived by a chance resemblance. But I have a strong intuition I am on their track."

Bryant's attitude became alert at once. "You say you have no evidence. well, tell me your suspicions, and I will tell you what weight I attach to them."

"First of all, before I do that, let me know if you would recognise Norah Burton and George Burton again, in spite of the passage of years. Norah had fair hair; the one I am on the track of has dark hair. The man I have not seen; this time he is a cousin, not a brother."

"Ah!" Mr. Bryant drew a deep breath. "If they are the people you think, sir, and I once saw them, no disguises would take me in. Now tell me all you know."