The Seven Dials Mystery

Chapter 10 BUNDLE VISITS SCOTLAND YARD

Now it may be said at once that in the foregoing conversation each one of the three participants had, as it were, held something in reserve. That "Nobody tells everything" is a very true motto.

It may be questioned, for instance, if Loraine Wade was perfectly sincere in her account of the motives which had led her to seek out Jimmy Thesiger.

In the same way, Jimmy Thesiger himself had various ideas and plans connected with the forthcoming party at George Lomax's which he had no intention of revealing to – say – Bundle.

And Bundle herself had a fully-fledged plan which she proposed to put into immediate execution and which she had said nothing whatever about.

On leaving Jimmy Thesiger's rooms, she drove to Scotland Yard, where she asked to see Superintendent Battle.

Superintendent Battle was rather a big man. He worked almost entirely on cases of a delicate political nature. On such a case he had come to Chimneys four years ago, and Bundle was frankly trading on his remembering this fact.

After a short delay, she was taken along several corridors and into the Superintendent's private room. Battle was a stolid-looking man with a wooden face. He looked supremely unintelligent and more like a commissionaire than a detective.

He was standing by the window when she entered, gazing in an expressionless manner at some sparrows.

"Good afternoon, Lady Eileen," he said. "Sit down, won't you?"

"Thank you," said Bundle. "I was afraid you mightn't remember me."

"Always remember people," said Battle . He added: "Got to in my job."

"Oh!" said Bundle, rather damped.

"And what can I do for you?" inquired the Superintendent.

Bundle came straight to the point.

"I've always heard that you people at Scotland Yard have lists of all secret societies and things like that that are formed in London ."

"We try to keep up to date," said Superintendent Battle cautiously.

"I suppose a great many of them aren't really dangerous."

"We've got a very good rule to go by," said Battle . "The more they talk, the less they'll do. You'd be surprised how well that works out."

"And I've heard that very often you let them go on?"

Battle nodded.

"That's so. Why shouldn't a man call himself a Brother of Liberty and meet twice a week in a cellar and talk about rivers of blood – it won't hurt either him or you and if there is any trouble any time, we know where to lay our hands on him."

"But sometimes, I suppose," said Bundle slowly, "a society may be more dangerous than anyone imagines?"

"Very unlikely," said Battle .

"But it might happen," persisted Bundle.

"Oh, it might," admitted the Superintendent.

There was a moment or two's silence. Then Bundle said quietly:

"Superintendent Battle, could I have a list of secret societies with headquarters in Seven Dials?"

It was Superintendent Battle's pride to have never been seen to display emotions of any kind. Bundle could have sworn that just for a moment his eyelids flickered. He was taken aback. Only for a moment. After that, he was his usual wooden self.

"Strictly speaking, Lady Eileen, there is no longer such place as Seven Dials."

"No?"

"No. Most of it is pulled down and rebuilt on. It was rather a low quarter, but nowadays it is a respectable and high class part of town. Not at all a romantic spot to search for mysterious secret societies."

"Oh!" said Bundle, rather taken aback.

"But all the same I should like to know what put that neighbourhood in your head, Lady Eileen."

"Have I got to tell you?"

"Well, it saves trouble, if we know where we are, so to speak."

Bundle hesitated for an instant.

"There was a man shot," she said slowly. "I thought I had run him over."

"Mr. Ronald Devereux?"

"You know about it, of course. Why has there been nothing in the papers?"

"Do you really want to know that, Lady Eileen?"

"Yes, please."

"Well, we just thought we should like to have a clear twenty-four hours – see? It will be in the papers tomorrow."

"Oh!" Bundle studied him, puzzled.

What was hidden behind that immovable face? Did he regard the shooting of Ronald Devereux as an ordinary crime or as an extraordinary one?

"He mentioned Seven Dials when he was dying," said Bundle slowly.

"Thank you," said Battle . "I'll make a note of that."

He wrote a few words on the blotting pad in front of him.

Bundle started on another tack.

"Mr. Lomax, I understand, came to see you yesterday about a threatening letter he had had."

"He did."

"And that was written from Seven Dials?"

"It had Seven Dials written at the top of it, I believe."

Bundle felt as though she was battering hopelessly on a locked door.

"If you'll let me advise you, Lady Eileen –"

"I know what you're going to say."

"I should go home and – well, think no more about these matters."

"Leave it to you, in fact?"

"Well," said Superintendent Battle, "after all, we are the professionals."

"And I'm only an amateur? Yes, but you forget one thing – I mayn't have your knowledge and skill – but I have one advantage over you. I can work in the dark."

She thought that the Superintendent seemed a little taken aback, as though the force of her words struck home.

"Of course," said Bundle, "if you won't give me a list of secret societies –"

"Oh! I never said that. You shall have a list of the whole lot."

He went to the door, put his head through and called out something, then came back to his chair. Bundle, rather unreasonably, felt baffled. The ease with which he acceded to her request seemed to her suspicious. He was looking at her now in a placid fashion.

"Do you remember the death of Mr. Gerald Wade?" she asked abruptly.

"Down at your place, wasn't it? Took an overdraught of sleeping mixture."

"His sister says he never took things to make him sleep."

"Ah!" said the Superintendent. "You'd be surprised what a lot of things there are that sisters don't know."

Bundle again felt baffled. She sat in silence till a man came in with a typewritten sheet of paper, which he handed to the Superintendent.

"Here you are," said the latter when the other had left the room. "The Blood Brothers of St. Sebastian. The Wolf Hounds. The Comrades of Peace. The Comrades Club. The Friends of Oppression. The Children of Moscow . The Red Standard Bearers. The Herrings. The Comrades of the Fallen – and half a dozen more."

He handed it to her with a distinct twinkle in his eye.

"You give it to me," said Bundle, "because you know it's not going to be the slightest use to me. Do you want me to leave the whole thing alone?"

"I should prefer it," said Battle . "You see – if you go messing round all these places – well, it's going to give us a lot of trouble."

"Looking after me, you mean?"

"Looking after you, Lady Eileen."

Bundle had risen to her feet. Now she stood undecided. So far the honours lay with Superintendent Battle. Then she remembered one slight incident, and she based a last appeal upon it.

"I said just now that an amateur could do some things which a professional couldn't. You didn't contradict me. That's because you're an honest man, Superintendent Battle. You knew I was right."

"Go on," said Battle quickly.

"At Chimneys you let me help. Won't you let me help now?"

Battle seemed to be turning the thing over in his mind. Emboldened by his silence, Bundle continued.

"You know pretty well what I'm like, Superintendent Battle. I butt into things. I'm a Nosy Parker. I don't want to get in your way or to try and do things that you're doing and can do a great deal better. But if there's a chance for an amateur, let me have it."

Again there was a pause, and then Superintendent Battle said quietly:

"You couldn't have spoken fairer than you have done, Lady Eileen. But I'm just going to say this to you. What you propose is dangerous. And when I say dangerous, I mean dangerous."

"I've grasped that," said Bundle. "I'm not a fool."

"No," said Superintendent Battle. "Never knew a young lady who was less so. What I'll do for you, Lady Eileen, is this. I'll just give you one little hint. And I'm doing it because I never have thought much of the motto 'Safety First.' In my opinion half the people who spend their lives avoiding being run over by buses had much better be run over and put safely out of the way. They're no good."

This remarkable utterance issuing from the conventional lips of Superintendent Battle quite took Bundle's breath away.

"What was the hint you were going to give me?" she asked at last.

"You know Mr. Eversleigh, don't you?"

"Know Bill? Why, of course. But what –"

"I think Mr. Bill Eversleigh will be able to tell you all you want to know about Seven Dials."

"Bill knows about it? Bill?"

"I didn't say that. Not at all. But I think, being a quick-witted young lady, you'll get what you want from him."

"And now," said Superintendent Battle firmly, "I'm not going to say another word."