Arriving at his office a little later than usual one morning, Hewitt found an urgent message awaiting him from the General Guarantee Society, requesting his attention to a robbery which had taken place on the previous day. He had gleaned some hint of the case from the morning paper, wherein appeared a short paragraph, which ran thus:
SERIOUS BANK ROBBERY. — In the course of yesterday a clerk employed by Messrs Liddle, Neal & Liddle, the well-known bankers, disappeared, having in his possession a large sum of money, the property of his employers — a sum reported to be rather over £15,000. It would seem that he had been entrusted to collect the money in his capacity of ‘walk-clerk’ from various other banks and trading concerns during the morning, but failed to return at the usual time. A large number of the notes which he received had been cashed at the Bank of England before suspicion was aroused. We understand that Detective–Inspector Plummer, of Scotland Yard, has the case in hand.
The clerk, whose name was Charles William Laker, had, it appeared from the message, been guaranteed in the usual way by the General Guarantee Society, and Hewitt’s presence at the office was at once desired in order that steps might quickly be taken for the man’s apprehension and in the recovery, at any rate, of as much of the booty as possible.
A smart hansom brought Hewitt to Threadneedle Street in a bare quarter of an hour, and there a few minutes’ talk with the manager, Mr Lyster, put him in possession of the main facts of the case, which appeared to be simple. Charles William Laker was twenty-five years of age, and had been in the employ of Messrs Liddle, Neal & Liddle for something more than seven years — since he left school, in fact — and until the previous day there had been nothing in his conduct to complain of. His duties as walk-clerk consisted in making a certain round, beginning at about half-past ten each morning. There were a certain number of the more important banks between which and Messrs Liddle, Neal & Liddle there were daily transactions, and a few smaller semi-private banks and merchant firms acting as financial agents with whom there was business intercourse of less importance and regularity; and each of these, as necessary, he visited in turn, collecting cash due on bills and other instruments of a like nature. He carried a wallet, fastened securely to his person by a chain, and this wallet contained the bills and the cash. Usually at the end of his round, when all his bills had been converted into cash, the wallet held very large sums. His work and responsibilities, in fine, were those common to walk-clerks in all banks.
On the day of the robbery he had started out as usual — possibly a little earlier than was customary — and the bills and other securities in his possession represented considerably more than £15,000. It had been ascertained that he had called in the usual way at each establishment on the round, and had transacted his business at the last place by about a quarter-past one, being then, without doubt, in possession of cash to the full value of the bills negotiated. After that, Mr Lyster said, yesterday’s report was that nothing more had been heard of him. But this morning there had been a message to the effect that he had been traced out of the country — to Calais, at least, it was thought. The directors of the society wished Hewitt to take the case in hand personally and at once, with a view of recovering what was possible from the plunder by way of salvage; also, of course, of finding Laker, for it is an important moral gain to guarantee societies, as an example, if a thief is caught and punished. Therefore Hewitt and Mr Lyster, as soon as might be, made for Messrs Liddle, Neal & Liddle’s, that the investigation might be begun.
The bank premises were quite near — in Leadenhall Street. Having arrived there, Hewitt and Mr Lyster made their way to the firm’s private rooms. As they were passing an outer waiting-room, Hewitt noticed two women. One, the elder, in widow’s weeds, was sitting with her head bowed in her hand over a small writing-table. Her face was not visible, but her whole attitude was that of a person overcome with unbearable grief; and she sobbed quietly. The other was a young woman of twenty-two or twenty-three. Her thick black veil revealed no more than that her features were small and regular and that her face was pale and drawn. She stood with a hand on the elder woman’s shoulder, and she quickly turned her head away as the two men entered.
Mr Neal, one of the partners, received them in his own room. ‘Good-morning, Mr Hewitt,’ he said, when Mr Lyster had introduced the detective. ‘This is a serious business — very. I think I am sorrier for Laker himself than for anybody else, ourselves included — or, at any rate, I am sorrier for his mother. She is waiting now to see Mr Liddle, as soon as he arrives — Mr Liddle has known the family for a long time. Miss Shaw is with her, too, poor girl. She is a governess, or something of that sort, and I believe she and Laker were engaged to be married. It’s all very sad.’
‘Inspector Plummer, I understand,’ Hewitt remarked, ‘has the affair in hand, on behalf of the police?’
‘Yes,’ Mr Neal replied; ‘in fact, he’s here now, going through the contents of Laker’s desk, and so forth; he thinks it possible Laker may have had accomplices. Will you see him?’
‘Presently. Inspector Plummer and I are old friends. We met last, I think, in the case of the Stanway cameo, some months ago. But, first, will you tell me how long Laker has been a walk-clerk?’
‘Barely four months, although he has been with us altogether seven years. He was promoted to the walk soon after the beginning of the year.’
‘Do you know anything of his habits — what he used to do in his spare time, and so forth?’
‘Not a great deal. He went in for boating, I believe, though I have heard it whispered that he had one or two more expensive tastes — expensive, that is, for a young man in his position,’ Mr Neal explained, with a dignified wave of the hand that he peculiarly affected. He was a stout old gentleman, and the gesture suited him.
‘You have had no reason to suspect him of dishonesty before, I take it?’
‘Oh, no. He made a wrong return once, I believe, that went for some time undetected, but it turned out, after all, to be a clerical error — a mere clerical error.’
‘Do you know anything of his associates out of the office?’
‘No, how should I? I believe Inspector Plummer has been making inquiries as to that, however, of the other clerks. Here he is, by the bye, I expect. Come in!’
It was Plummer who had knocked, and he came in at Mr Neal’s call. He was a middle-sized, small-eyed, impenetrable-looking man, as yet of no great reputation in the force. Some of my readers may remember his connection with that case, so long a public mystery, that I have elsewhere fully set forth and explained under the title of ‘The Stanway Cameo Mystery’. Plummer carried his billy-cock hat in one hand and a few papers in the other. He gave Hewitt good-morning, placed his hat on a chair, and spread the papers on the table.
‘There’s not a great deal here,’ he said, ‘but one thing’s plain — Laker had been betting. See here, and here, and here’— he took a few letters from the bundle in his hand —‘two letters from a bookmaker about settling — wonder he trusted a clerk — several telegrams from tipsters, and a letter from some friend — only signed by initials — asking Laker to put a sovereign on a horse for the friend “with his own”. I’ll keep these, I think. It may be worth while to see that friend, if we can find him. Ah, we often find it’s betting, don’t we, Mr Hewitt? Meanwhile, there’s no news from France yet.’
‘You are sure that is where he is gone?’ asked Hewitt.
‘Well, I’ll tell you what we’ve done as yet. First, of course, I went round to all the banks. There was nothing to be got from that. The cashiers all knew him by sight, and one was a personal friend of his. He had called as usual, said nothing in particular, cashed his bills in the ordinary way, and finished up at the Eastern Consolidated Bank at about a quarter-past one. So far there was nothing whatever. But I had started two or three men meanwhile making inquiries at the railway stations, and so on. I had scarcely left the Eastern Consolidated when one of them came after me with news. He had tried Palmer’s Tourist Office, although that seemed an unlikely place, and there struck