THE

EXPLOITS OF

CAPTAIN

O’HAGAN

BY

SAX ROHMER

Author of “The Yellow Claw,”

“Dr. Fu Manchu,” etc.

Bookfinger

New York City

1968

Portions of this book appeared serially in McClure’s

Magazine during 1913-14

First Printed, Jarrolds, London,

December, 1916

First American Edition

A NECESSARY FOREWORD.

In presenting for perusal a selection of private notes dealing with the sometimes eccentric doings of my gallant friend and compatriot, Captain the Hon. Bernard O’Hagan, V.C., D.S.O., I desire in the first place to assure my reader that O’Hagan is in no degree related to anyone else of the name.

Recent circumstances have led him to resume military duties; but the splendid response of Democracy to the trumpet-call “Pro Patrià” has in no way unsettled his singular opinions. In the face of evidence to the contrary which many regard as conclusive, he maintains that the ideal form of government is government by an absolute monarchy.

It forms no part of my plan either to support or to seek to disprove the theories of Captain O’Hagan. In justice to my distinguished friend, I must add that support and opposition alike are matters of indifference to him. He stands alone—aloof—aloft. Neither as apologist nor as eulogist do I pen these lines, but merely as the chronicler of remarkable events in the career of a remarkable man.

EXPLOIT THE FIRST.

HE PATRONISES PAMELA.

EXPLOIT THE FIRST.
HE PATRONISES PAMELA.

I.
THE HAT OF MR. PARKINS.

A very wilderness is Bernard O’Hagan, which no man could hope thoroughly to explore; a most picturesque figure in the satin-lined cloak which he loves to wear in defiance of fashion and indeed of civilised custom, singularly resembling the Merry Monarch whom a lady of his race once entertained right regally at the ancestral home of the O’Hagans. The unexpectedness of the man is one of the most marked features of his character—the one that makes his society at once delightful and alarming.

“My boy,” he will burst out, as we sit in a crowded café, “that gentleman yonder is unduly interested in my appearance.” And, stepping over to the offensive one: “Sir, you are staring at me. I suspect you of being a bum-bailiff!”

“What!” says the other, in all probability—whilst, my friend and I the observed of many observers, I tremble for the outcome of the affair—“how dare you! Damn it! how dare you!”

“Because,” replies O’Hagan, with a sort of calm ferocity, “I desire to pull your nose, and only await a fitting opportunity! You are a puppy, sir! There is my card!”

The man leaps in anger to his feet. Others arise, too, and waiters approach.

“You will regret this outrage!” says the man, pale or inflamed. “You will hear from my solicitor!”

Then O’Hagan throws back his picturesque head and laughs.

“The solicitor again!” he cries, snapping his fingers. “Always the solicitor—or the police! Is there no man alive to-day who can fight his own battles?”

He quietly returns to his table. The other speaks to the manager, and, if he be a good customer, the manager comes across to O’Hagan. O’Hagan rises slowly, fixing his eyes upon him. And, somehow, O’Hagan is never ejected. A devil of a fellow.

To the charge that he is a polished kind of bully he will reply calmly, arguing that he is merely of a sensitive and aristocratic temperament and suffers affront where one more callous would be conscious of none. He will submit to rudeness from no man, be he premier or potman; yet he is never vulgarly embroiled.

O’Hagan rarely wears a hat during the day. There is a simple explanation. At one time in his chequered career, the only presentable hat he possessed was a crush-hat. It was then that he cultivated the hatless fashion. This habit of going hatless directly led to his meeting with Pamela.

Captain O’Hagan was walking along a crowded, shop-lined thoroughfare, with that swinging stride which he will tell you runs in the family, and which enabled his ancestor Patrick to secure enrolment in the ranks of the Musketeers of Louis XIII. Before the door of a newsagent’s establishment—quite an unpretentious little shop—two men stood. One of them, elderly, waved a tweed cap—to a girl more than ordinarily pretty who was making her way up the steps to the roof of a moving motor bus. The girl carried a neat brown leather case, and, having gained a seat, turned and waved her handkerchief. The younger man smiled sourly, but did not join the elder in his waving.

O’Hagan, delighted with the girl’s animation and beauty, halted by the two, smiling at the retreating figure. Quite mechanically he raised the hard felt hat from the head of the younger and less enthusiastic man, and waved it with a vigour even more marked than that of the elder waver.

He was recalled to the scene from which the girl now had disappeared amid the motley traffic, by a violent punch in the ribs.

“Blighter!” said a coarse voice. “My ’at!”

Another than Captain O’Hagan had turned quickly, with arm raised to ward off another possible blow. But with O’Hagan the cult of the unusual is a creed to which he sacrifices daily. Some difficulty he experienced in suppressing a gasp, but he turned unhastily, calmly, and looked into the bright little eyes of the hat’s owner. These were set upon him wickedly, and a truculent, blue-shaded jaw was thrust forward in menace.

“You’ve properly asked for it,” continued the man, tensely, “and you’re goin’ to get it!”

“Jem!” protested the older man, fearfully. “Not here——”

Straight from the shoulder a piston stroke was launched at O’Hagan. It was a blow with brawn to drive it, with science to direct it. It was aimed—and well—in accordance with ring traditions of the “knock-out.” But one who takes unwarrantable liberties with unknowns’ hats must be prepared for reprisals.

O’Hagan is fond of showing his friends the tricks learned of Shashu Myuku of Nagasaki; he is equally prompt to demonstrate them to others. Without employing his right hand, which was engaged in holding the felt hat, he struck down the impending blow (any but a pupil of Myuku must have endeavoured to strike it up), thrust his left foot rapidly against his opponent’s advanced right shin, and, by a simple process of natural law the pugilist pitched forward on to the pavement, propelled by all the force of his own attacking impetus.

Much shaken, and with a rivulet of blood trickling down his nose from a damaged forehead, he got upon his feet again. Captain O’Hagan deliberately hurled the bowler far out into the stream of traffic, and fixed his large eyes upon its white-faced owner.

“One word,” he said, in that tone of suppressed ferocity wholly inimitable, “and I will throw you after it! You ape!”

The dazed and much-insulted man glanced from a shapeless dark mass which, prior to the passage of a brewer’s traction-engine, had been a felt hat, to the face of O’Hagan; and began with his handkerchief to wipe blood from his wounds. O’Hagan cast his eyes upward to the legend: “J. Crichton, Newsagent,” and took the elder man by the arm.

“A word with you, Mr. Crichton!” he said, sweeping that astonished old tradesman into the shop, and ignoring the knot of interested spectators gathered at the door.

—————

II.
“THE ART OF GENTLE THOUGHT.”

A chair stood by the journal-strewn counter.

“Sit down,” said O’Hagan kindly, “and answer a few questions! Who is that person whose hat I honoured?”

The newsagent, who momentarily was expecting to awaken from this bad dream, shook his head ominously.

“It’s Jem Parkins, sir,” he replied, with that respect bordering upon awe which O’Hagan inspires in the plebeian soul. “He’s got the Blue Dragon now, but he’s ex-middleweight champion. There’ll be the devil to pay when he’s pulled hisself together, sir!”

“Reserve your speculations, Mr. Crichton,” said O’Hagan, “and confine yourself to facts. The young lady on the bus—your daughter?”

“Yes, sir.”

“She takes after her mother.”

Mr. Crichton stared.

“Did you know Polly—Mrs. Crichton, sir?”

“No. I was referring to your daughter’s good looks. She dresses neatly.”

Mr. Crichton had something of the British tradesman’s independent spirit, and even the awe inspired by O’Hagan’s tremendous presence could not wholly smother his paternal resentment.

“I’d have you know that Pamela’s a lady, sir! And I’d have——”

“Pamela is quite an unusual name for a girl of the lower classes. In what way is Parkins interested?”

The mild eye of Mr. J. Crichton smouldered into faint flame.

“The lower classes! The——”

“I asked you a question.”

Mr. Crichton hesitated, glanced around his shop—his own shop—noted that his pugilistic friend was entering the door with an air of business-like truculence, and took his elusive courage in both hands.

“I decline to be cross-examined—by you—or—by——”

Mr. Parkins closed the shop-door, bolted it, and pulled down the blue blind. He began deliberately to remove his coat.

“Half a mo, Mr. C.,” he interrupted in a quivering voice. “Sorry to put you out, but it’s got to be done. I’ll smash ’im; then you can call for the police and give ’im in charge!”

O’Hagan raised the monocle swung upon the broad black ribbon, and holding it at some distance from his right eye, surveyed the speaker.

“I thought I forbade you to address me?” he remarked icily.

Parkins, removing a collar and shirt-front combined, began to whistle.

“I’ll show you comin’ buttin’ in and runnin’ after respectable girls!” he announced hoarsely. “Blighter!”

O’Hagan dropped the monocle and laid his cane upon the counter. At the moment that Parkins stood upright and squared his chest, the Captain snatched up Mr. Crichton’s day-book—a heavy, leather-bound volume—and hurled it full at the pugilist’s head. One of the precepts of the Higher Jiu-jitsu, or “Art of Gentle Thought,” he will tell you, is to avail yourself of any missile within reach. His aim, then, is deadly. The day-book struck Parkins edgewise across the face, felling him like a stricken bullock—felling him utterly, brutally.

He crashed into the corner by the door—and lay still. (“A dreadful blow was struck at every gentleman when the sword was taken from him,” O’Hagan will say. “One cannot soil one’s gloves with the blood of churls.”)

“If you compel me to deal with you,” said the Captain, as Parkins returned to groaning consciousness of his injuries, “I shall cut your ears off!”

Do not judge my friend harshly. He was born three centuries too late, that is all. The claim of Democracy to an equality with Aristocracy is as unintelligible to him as it must have been to Denis O’Hagan, who upheld the Stuart cause whilst he had breath, and died at last like a gentleman at Worcester, having demonstrated his distaste for plebeian company by personally dispatching seven Roundheads. Or perhaps the autocratic soul of Patrick O’Hagan lives again within Bernard. This member of the family, sometime of the Mousquetaires du roi, narrowly escaped the Bastille for decapitating a Paris grocer who insulted a lady and attaching the erring tradesman’s head to his own shop-sign.

Parkins dizzily strove to get upon his feet. Mr. Crichton, trembling, was seeking to reach the telephone.

“Sit down, Mr. Crichton,” directed O’Hagan, turning the monocle upon him.

“This is my shop—and that’s one o’ my friends——”

“Sit down, Mr. Crichton.”

Mr. Crichton sat down.

“You”—to the tottering pugilist—“put on your filthy rags, and get out.”

Parkins steadied himself against the door.

“What d’you mean, get out? I’ve got more right ’ere than you! Just wait, you cowardly skunk! I’ll ’ave you yet! I’ll quod you for this!”

“You have one minute to get out. If I hear from you again, I shall give you in charge for assault and battery!”

O’Hagan, lolling against the counter, swung the monocle carelessly. The amplitude of his nonchalance prevailed. Parkins, recalling that he had struck the first blow, stuffed his “dicky” into his coat, resumed that garment, and began to unbolt the door.

With never a backward glance, the discredited Mr. Parkins made his exit. One of a curious group, without, entered on the pretence of buying a halfpenny paper. He was served by the trembling newsagent, but save for the presence of a hatless, distinguished gentleman, saw nothing to satisfy his curiosity in Mr. Crichton’s shop.

“Now, Mr. Crichton,” said O’Hagan, the customer departed, “in reference to Pamela: has the fellow, Parkins, pretensions?”

Mr. Crichton, pro tempore, was past protest.

“He’s an old pal o’ mine,” he explained, unsteadily, “and well off—and——”

“Pamela does not approve him?”

“Well, she’s got such superior ideas. But Parkins——”

“It is out of the question, Crichton. Dismiss the idea. Mrs. Crichton was a woman of higher social standing than yourself?”

The newsagent felt suffocation to be an imminent danger.

“She was the daughter of a lit’r’y gentleman——”

“Singular that she should have married you! Her father was badly in debt, possibly?”

“Look here——!”

“I say, possibly the late Mrs. Crichton’s father was financially indebted to you?”

Crichton, cowed:

“I pretty well kept him, for years!”

“Ah! poor girl! A tragedy of poverty! But you have not neglected Pamela’s education?”

“She’s had the best that money could give her!”

O’Hagan seized the hand of the bewildered Mr. Crichton and wrung it warmly.

“There are redeeming features in your character, Crichton!” he said. “For your endeavours on the girl’s behalf I can forgive you much. Rely upon my friendship! And Pamela has literary inclinations?”

“No, sir,” answered the newsagent, whose world was being turned topsy-turvy, who alternately believed that he was in the company of a madman or that he himself was mad. “She’s a musician; I’ve had her properly taught; she composes!”

Above all the chaos reigning in his mind, paternal pride asserted its sovereignty and his voice proclaimed it.

“Ah! composes? She has just gone to see a publisher? She had music in the leather case?”

“Her new piece, sir. She reckons it’s goin’ to make her!”

“What has she published?”

Mr. Crichton, crestfallen:

“Nothing, sir! You see, she’s unknown. They won’t give her a chance.”

“She will return to lunch?”

The newsagent stared.

“Pamela’ll be home to dinner!” he said.

“The midday meal? Exactly. I will lunch with you, Crichton. My name is Captain O’Hagan.”

His mode of patronage was superb, incomparable.

—————

III.
PAMELA RETURNS.

Pamela arrived late, a dainty figure in her neat serge costume; but the very curl that floated across her brow, the limp little hand that held the music-case, spoke of dejection. Her charming face was not habitually pale, O’Hagan felt assured, nor were such glorious eyes meant to be dimmed with threatening tears.

“Hullo, Pam!” began her father heartily—and hesitated. “Why—won’t they take it?”

A forlorn little shake of the head.

“That horrible Ritzmann offered to publish it—if I would let him have it for nothing!”

“For nothing! Didn’t he offer to pay anything?”

“Not after I had declined to go to lunch with him!”

Pamela laughed; not mirthfully.

“Cheer up, Pam,” said Mr. Crichton, in a voice of abysmal gloom. “A—er—a friend——”

“A friend, yes, Crichton,” interrupted O’Hagan. “Don’t be nervous.”

“A friend of mine—Captain O’Hagan—has called to see us!”

Pamela blushed delightfully; O’Hagan bowed inimitably.

“Didn’t Mr.—Parkins—stay?”

Crichton coughed.

“He couldn’t stop, after all!” He replied.

Pamela removed her hat. “Good job, too,” she muttered under her breath.

And then began that singular repast, throughout which O’Hagan talked as only O’Hagan can talk; talked himself into the hearts of the Crichtons. The old man’s natural resentment—which hitherto had not become wholly dispersed—melted before the geniality of his distinguished guest; Mr. Parkins was forgotten. Pamela forgot her troubles and became all smiles. Crichton burned with pride to note that Captain O’Hagan treated her as an intellectual equal. Of the Captain’s honourable and friendly intentions no man could doubt after thirty minutes in his company; and so that was a happy hour spent at the newsagent’s humble table.

The meal despatched:

“Now for the music!” said O’Hagan, and crossing the little room, he opened the piano.

Pamela stared.

“May I try over your new piece, Miss Crichton?”

“Oh!” cried the girl. “You play?”

“A little. I should like, as a pleasure, to hear your own rendering; as a matter of business I should prefer to play the piece myself.”

“A matter of business——”

“You hope to place these compositions?”

“Oh!” said Pamela blankly; “yes,” and took the MS. from her music-case, adjusting it upon the piano-rack.

Few people have heard O’Hagan play the piano. He never plays unless requested and the many being ignorant of his accomplishment, he rarely is requested. But from the moment that his long, white fingers caressed the keys in the opening bar until that when they leapt back from the final chord, his audience of two listened spellbound. The piece was a delicate, feminine morsel; individual, charming; upon an elusive melody, which haunted the ear, which spelt Popularity. For a moment there was silence. O’Hagan swung around and faced Pamela.

“Miss Crichton,” he said, “you will make a large sum of money with your music. One day you will be famous.”

Pamela blushed; her lips trembled. She had never heard her dainty composition played before by hands other than her own. It was something of a revelation to its composer—this rippling, fascinating cascade of harmony which had flown out under the subtle touch of the visitor. Tears were not far from her eyes again.

“Give me more of your pieces—all you can find,” directed O’Hagan.

Glad enough of an excuse to hide her emotion, the girl ran to a little escretoire and took out six or seven neatly-written compositions. O’Hagan placed them before him, and played through them all, without hesitation, without error; with intense sympathy and understanding. Soon she was beside him, turning over the familiar pages; her wayward curls brushed his cheek. When the master-touch had sounded the finale of the last piece, old Crichton pulled out a handkerchief and blew his nose in clarion fashion.

“What terms were you asking of—er—Ritzmann?” said the Captain abruptly.

“The usual ten per cent.,” replied Pamela, “with—something on account.”

“How much on account?”

“Ritzmann, I have heard—I know—usually gives ten guineas.”

She spoke the words with awe. Ten guineas on account of a composition of hers—of her very own! It was a dream!

“Ah! Ten guineas on account of a ten per cent, royalty? Let me see: we have eight pieces here. Can you find two more?”

“There is a suite of three short numbers.”

“Bring that.”

Pamela found it, and brought it. O’Hagan played it, and was delighted.

“Four sharps,” he criticised, “are bad in a composition designed for general popularity. Would it lose by transposition into a more simple key?”

“I think not,” said Pamela.

“Well,” continued O’Hagan, “it is a matter for discussion later. May I take these with me?”

“Of course!” said Pamela. “But——”

“Can you give me until Thursday to place them for you?”

“To place them! To place all of them?”

“All of them! Can you give me until Thursday?”

Pamela’s pretty eyes were widely staring.

“You overwhelm me! Do you really mean it?”

“Will you wait until Thursday and see?”

“Of course!” said Pamela.

—————

IV.
A MUSICAL INTERLUDE.

O’Hagan entered my rooms with the impressive dignity of a Richelieu; in the very distinction of the man there is something opulent. His refined insouciance surpasses anything of the kind one could imagine.

“Will you do me a trifling service, Raymond?”

“Consider it as done.”

He threw himself into the blue Chesterfield lounge with the native grace no lesser man could hope to imitate. His pose suggested that a rapier hung at his hip and must be taken into consideration. A plumed hat would have struck no discordant note but merely have harmonised with the purple-lined cloak. O’Hagan’s head one might surmise to be from a study by Van Dyck.

“I am running around to Ritzmann’s, the music-publishers, in Berners Street.”

Now, I noted that he carried a full portfolio.

“At last you have decided to enter the field? You do wisely.”

“I am acting on behalf of a friend—a lady.”

“Indeed. What part do I play?”

“Come along. I will explain.”

We walked up Oxford Street to the corner of Berners Street. O’Hagan creates a sensation wherever he appears: I am hardened to this.

“You will reconnoitre, Raymond. You will send in a card—anybody’s card but your own—to Mr. Paul Ritzmann.”

“What!”

“You are representing Messrs. Angelo Morris, of Monte Video! Probably there is no such firm; I invented the name. You are prepared to handle Ritzmann’s dance-catalogue throughout the southern continent. If he declines to do business, no matter; if he is interested, make an appointment at your hotel—the Savoy sounds substantial without being gaudy.”

“What is the object of this mendacity?”

“To learn if there is a second door to Ritzmann’s office; another than that opening on the shop. If there is, come out by it at all costs, and note where it leads you to. I think, and hope, it will open on a corridor communicating with the street. From what I know of Ritzmann I feel confident that there will be such a private entrance. You will note, also, where the other end of this hypothetical passage leads to. Probably it will be to a stair. Finally, you will report respecting the occupant of the suite of offices above—the suite to which this stair should conduct you.”

“I am not confident,” I said; “but I will do my best.”

Three minutes later I was ushered into the Semitic presence of Mr. Paul Ritzmann. Mr. Ritzmann had a corpulent person, a bald head, and an oily smile. He wore diamond rings on his left hand as well as on his right, by which token I knew that he was really rich. A Hebrew of the Ritzmann type buys a diamond ring as soon as he can afford it, and displays it upon his right hand. That is an advertising investment; it signifies that he is ambitious. But when his right hand is full and he begins to adorn his left it implies that his ambition is realised.

He made no plunge at my South American offer. He was very cautious.

“I will give you a ring at the hotel, Mr. Eddington.” (I had sent in the card of Harry Eddington, who at the time was with an expedition looking for the South Pole.) “I dare say we may be able to fix something up.”

“Good morning.”

I made a plunge for a door on the left of his desk.

“This way out, Mr. Eddington,” came after me; but I was in the corridor, and closed the door behind me.

A white hand with extended fingers was painted on the further wall, and, beneath it, the words:

Harris & Harris,

Domestic Employment Agency.

Turning to the right, I passed out into Berners Street.

“It is well,” said O’Hagan, musingly, when I had made my report. “You will now get back to the said corridor, without permitting yourself to be seen from Ritzmann’s shop; you will wait by Ritzmann’s private door, but on the stair side, so that when I come out he won’t notice you. I shall hand you something; you will go up Harris and Harris’s stair like a rocket, concealing, of course, the object referred to, and see about a cook. Then go home.”

One pays for the privilege of O’Hagan’s friendship.

I had not been at my post more than half a minute, when I saw O’Hagan pass in the street and enter the Ritzmann shop. I began to make notes in a note-book to excuse my loitering. Leaving me so engaged, you will please follow the Captain.

To a counter-clerk:

“Kindly inform Mr. Ritzmann,” he said, “that the gentleman he is expecting will see him.”

“Yes, sir. Certainly, sir. Will you take a seat!”

This, the shop staff were decided, was either a distinguished Russian composer or a gentleman of title interested in a new musical comedy for the “Gaiety.”

A moment later:

“Mr. Ritzmann will see you at once, sir. This way, if you please.”

O’Hagan swung grandly office-ward, and entered to find Ritzmann standing to greet him.

The clerk was about to retire.

“My good fellow,” called O’Hagan, “Mr. Ritzmann and I are not to be interrupted upon any account.”

The clerk bowed and retired. Ritzmann stared.

“You say I was expecting you, Mr.——?”

O’Hagan smiled, waving his hand reassuringly.

“Pray be seated, Mr. Ritzmann.”

Mr. Ritzmann accepted the invitation, and O’Hagan sat upon the edge of the desk facing him. O’Hagan was between Mr. Ritzmann and the bell.

“I have decided to place with you for immediate publication a parcel of charming compositions—nine in all.”

Ritzmann’s eyes began to protrude.

“They are these.”

O’Hagan opened the portfolio and set the heap of MSS. on the desk.

With frequent sideway glances at his extraordinary visitor, Mr. Ritzmann began to look at the music.

“Why,” he burst out, suddenly, pushing the whole of it towards the Captain, “all this stuff has been submitted by post, and declined! All but this thing; and Miss Crichton was here only the other day with it. I don’t want the junk, my dear sir! If I’d known that’s what you——”

O’Hagan waved him to silence.

“Of all these things I am fully aware, Mr. Ritzmann; but I thought I had explained that I had selected you to publish these compositions?”

The other clutched the arms of his chair.

“Selected me?”

“That was my expression. Had the music been worthless——”

“It is worthless! Piffle!”

“Had the music been worthless I should not have offered it to you. But each of these nine items is a sound speculation. We shall require nine agreement-forms.”

Ritzmann, staring, rose slowly to his feet.

“Sit down, Mr. Ritzmann.”

Ritzmann moistened his thick lips preparatory to comment.

“Sit down, Mr. Ritzmann.”

He sat down; and his fleshy hands were not quite steady; the diamonds danced and sparkled. He managed to achieve coherent speech:

“This is a damn big bluff! But if you bluff from now——”

“You have royalty-forms in your desk; we shall require nine.”

Ritzmann got on his feet and plunged for the bell. He was hurled back with violence; and his eyes protruded unnaturally at sight of the pistol which pointed at his bald skull.

“Nine forms, Mr. Ritzmann.”

“You must—be mad. You—dare not——”

“There you are in error. I would shoot you without compunction. If I failed to escape I should shoot myself. I have nothing to live for, and I should go to eternity with that one good deed to my credit. I will dictate the titles of the nine pieces and you will fill in the forms.”

Ritzmann’s face grew ashy. He looked a stricken man. The bundle of forms shook and rustled like autumn leaves in a breeze. Unemotionally, O’Hagan read out the titles; shakily, all but illegibly, the publisher wrote them in. Form after form was filled updated and signed. Two, O’Hagan rejected as quite illegible. But at last he was satisfied, and pocketed the nine.

“Ten guineas on account of each,” he said; “that will be a cheque for ninety-four pounds, ten shillings, payable to Miss Pamela Crichton.”

Ritzmann’s face showed that he was contemplating rebellion.

“I shall count ten, Mr. Ritzmann!”

The cheque was drawn up and signed. O’Hagan carefully folded and placed it in his pocket-book.

“Good day,” he said, and backed towards the door.

He opened it and stepped out into the passage. He had not closed it ere with bell and husky voice Ritzmann was summoning assistance.

O’Hagan handed me the pistol. He took out his cigarette-case and selected a cigarette. Before he had found his matchbox I was upstairs and inside Messrs. Harris and Harris’s office. It must have been at about the moment when I was stating my lack of a suitable parlourmaid, that three clerks, rushing out of the shop, intercepted the Captain, as, match in hand, he stood at the street-end of the passage.

They would have seized him; but O’Hagan’s eyes can quell.

“Your dirty hands off! The meaning of this outrage?”

Trembling, grey-faced, Mr. Ritzmann joined the three clerks. A fourth, who had been detailed to that duty, returned from an adjacent corner with a constable.

“Arrest that man! He has robbed me!”

O’Hagan closed his matchbox with a click and fixed his eyes upon the officer.

“Constable,” he said, with dignity, “step into the shop. This is an outrage for which Mr. Ritzmann shall pay. Step inside if you please—all of you.”

The wide-eyed clerks returned to the shop. Ritzmann, never taking his gaze from O’Hagan, but keeping at a safe distance, entered behind the Captain, clutching at the perplexed policeman and whispering: “He has robbed me! He’s got my cheque in his pocket!”

Having entered the shop,—to the excited clerks:

“Return to your duties, good fellows!” ordered O’Hagan. “I am not accustomed to be made an object of vulgar curiosity! Mr. Ritzmann, lead the way to your office. Constable—follow.”

The odd trio entered Ritzmann’s sanctum. O’Hagan closed the door.

“He’s dangerous!” cried the publisher. “He carries a pistol!”

O’Hagan raised his hand.

“The officer, Mr. Ritzmann,” he said, “is prepared to do his duty. But you have not stated your case. Of what am I accused?”

“Of extorting money from me, at the point of a pistol!”

“Officer! You have my permission to look for the weapon!”

The constable ran his hands over O’Hagan.

“Excuse me, sir,” he reported to Mr. Ritzmann, who was now regaining colour and perspiring freely, “but the gentleman hasn’t got any pistol on him!”

“He’s dropped it in the passage!” yelled Ritzmann. “He——”

Again O’Hagan raised the forceful hand.

“One of your clerks can go and look; and would you be good enough to request your manager to join us?”

The necessary instructions were given, and the manager appeared. O’Hagan threw down his bunch of agreements and displayed the cheque.

“Sir,” he said to the manager, “are these in order?”

“He made me do it!” cried Ritzmann hoarsely, “at the point of a pistol!”

A shopman entered to report that there was no pistol in the passage. Ritzmann began to swear.

“Silence!” thundered O’Hagan. “Silence! you contemptible scoundrel!” To the manager: “Are those agreements and this cheque quite regular?”

“Well,” said the manager, glancing deprecatingly at his employer—“I can see nothing irregular about them. They are in your writing, Mr. Ritzmann!”

“He held a pistol to my head!” cried the publisher. “You’re a pack of fools! Fools! Officer! will you do your duty and arrest that thief!”

O’Hagan took a stride towards the speaker.

“Stop him!” quavered Ritzmann, paling. “He——”

“Mr. Ritzmann,” said O’Hagan calmly, “you are a low blackguard! Repenting of your bargain, you invented this cock-and-bull story as a means of evading it! Knowing me to be a man who has led an adventurous life, you thought yourself safe in charging me with carrying arms! I have several witnesses to the fact that you have grossly slandered me. That your charge is absurd—insane—worthy of a ‘penny-dreadful’—renders it none the less slanderous. You will either apologise, here and now, or—there is my card. My solicitor will take charge of the matter in the morning!”

Down on to the desk before the bewildered Ritzmann, O’Hagan cast his card. Like everything appertaining to that remarkable man, his card is impressive, unusual, striking; a battery. Mr. Ritzmann, his manager and the constable, read the following:

The constable stood stiffly to attention, and saluted.

“What am I to do, sir?” he asked—of O’Hagan.

“Ring up Gerrard 04385!”

Ritzmann dropped into his chair and sat there with bulging eyes. The constable, amid a surprising silence, took up the telephone and got the desired number.

“Ask if that is the Junior Guards,” directed O’Hagan.

Yes, it was the Junior Guards.

“See if Colonel Sir Gerald Fitz Ayre is in the house.”

The name of that celebrated soldier electrified the Captain’s audience. Fitz Ayre was found and came to the telephone. O’Hagan took the receiver from the now extremely respectful officer.

“That you, Fitz Ayre? Yes; O’Hagan speaking. My confounded eccentricities of costume have got me into hot water again! Will you please describe me to the person who is now coming to the ’phone! Yes. Thank you.”

Ritzmann, summoned imperiously, took the receiver in his trembling hands. But he did not listen to the Colonel’s florid description of O’Hagan’s person; for his mind was otherwise engaged. He knew himself the victim of a tremendous bluff, but, now, he knew the bluffer for one above his reach; he knew, moreover, that he lacked evidence, and that he had been guilty of a slander which might cost him thousands. Pamela Crichton’s music was quite saleable. He would lose nothing by the deal; he would see to that. His course was clear.

“Thanks. Good-bye.”

Ritzmann turned to O’Hagan.