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He waited, standing and staring at his dead cousin until Gaffney came hurrying along the corridor. Allerdyke beckoned him into the room and closed the door. "Gaffney," he said. "You see how things are? Mr. James is dead I found him sitting there, dead. He's been dead some time hours. There's a doctor, a foreigner, I think, across the passage there, who says it's been heart failure.
Appleyard had already ascertained that neither Rayner nor Miss Slade had returned to the Pompadour; Gaffney, the chauffeur, who had been keeping an eye on the exterior of that establishment, had nothing to tell. And Albert's face was somewhat dismal, and his eye inclined to something like an aggrieved surliness, as he joined the new-comers and answered their first question.
The two Gaffneys arrived at that moment and Appleyard, after some further talk, assigned them their duties. Gaffney, the chauffeur, was to go at once and get himself a room at an inn in close proximity to the Pompadour Hotel, so that he would be at Appleyard's disposal at any hour of the coming evening and night. Albert Gaffney, the clerk, was to devote himself to watching Rayner.
A smart, private cab in which you could put a friend of yours well dressed would be the thing. Early." "Easy as winking, sir," answered Gaffney. "Know the cab, and know a friend o'mine who'd sit in it as long as you like." "Very good," said Appleyard. "Now, then, do you know Lancaster Gate?" "Do I know St. Paul's?" exclaimed Gaffney, half-derisively.
A letter was read from the Coroner, to the effect that he saw no ground for detaining the husband, Gaffney but the woman was taken before a justice of the peace, and committed to prison on this finding by the Coroner's jury: "That Mary Anne Gaffney came by her death; and that the mother of the child, Ellen Gaffney, is guilty of wilful neglect by not supplying the necessary food and care to sustain the life of this child "!
The manager at once took him to a suite of three rooms at the end of the corridor which they were then in. Allerdyke took it at once, sent Gaffney down to bring up certain things from the car, and detained the manager for a moment's conversation. "I suppose you'd a fair lot of people come in last night from that Christiania boat?" he asked. "Some fifteen or twenty," answered the manager.
Allerdyke says," he remarked. "Wants me to find you something to do while he's off. How long is he likely to be off?" "He said he might be back to-morrow night, sir," answered Gaffney, glancing at the note. "But possibly not till the day after to-morrow." "Well, I don't know that there's anything you can do here," said Appleyard. "We're not particularly busy, and we've a full staff.
I've got the number of the cab they took from Cannon Street." Appleyard nodded approval. "Good!" he said. "That's something, Gaffney a good deal. We can work on from that." "Well?" he continued, turning to Allerdyke. "I think there's nothing else we can do to-night?
He was asleep as Gaffney went through Leeds and its suburbs; he slept all along the country roads which led to Selby and thence to Howden. But in the silent streets of Howden he woke with a start, to find that Gaffney had pulled up in answer to a question flung to him by the driver of another car, which had come alongside their own from the opposite direction.
"I could and would trust my chauffeur with my last shilling," answered Allerdyke. "And as for his brother, I'll take my man's word for him. Besides, they both know or Mr. Gaffney knows that I'm a pretty generous paymaster. If a man does aught for me, and does it well, he profits to a nice penny!" "A good argument," agreed Chettle. "I don't know that you could beat it, Mr. Allerdyke.
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