plotting the murder of Valmon Dain

"What are you looking so peeved about?" he inquired truculently. "He can't do us no good while he stays alive, cab he?"

"Not that I'm aware of," said Lyall. "But at the same time, you'll admit there are difficulties. I don't even know that this is the man we're looking for.

"well, perish my bones!" snorted Tansy. "I saw him with my own eyes, didn't I? saw him pull out his book and write the names down. saw him turn over the pages with 'eaps of other cases wrote down on 'em ; saw him take the names out of the paper and stick 'em down under the silver Arrow. And blimey!----- I saw the writing' , too! You can't get away from that!"

"Y-yes, I know," said Lyall defensively. "But you also said his name was Dent, and that he has an office in kingsway. That, I know for a positive fact, is untrue."

"Is it? Well, maybe you know more about him than I do."

There was something more than a note of grievance in Tansy's voice. there was a hint of suspicion, of threatening rebellion..

Lyall noted it. He pushed his chair back and clicked hid tongue irritably. "As a matter of fact," he said, "this mad Valmon Dain lives out at Hendon."

"I'll be seeing the rest of the boys tonight---- I'll tell 'em so!" said Tansy, with an evil glitter in his eyes.

Lyall thought hard for a minute. He felt the bitter cynicism of having to admit pressure from such a distasteful source as the melter, but he knew that there are times when even the underdog is entitled to his bite. It was obvious that Tansy was not going to be satisfied with anything less than Dain's speedy death. And in all callous reality, Lyall was himself convinced that their only sure road to safety lay through the cemetery that sheltered Dain's last earthly abode. It was merely that Lyall wasn't so blunt about it.

He looked shrewdly at the jeweller.

"There is no need to open your mouth to the rest of the boys tonight," he said smoothly. "You need not even tell them that the danger has been located."

The fence swung round in his chair.

"Oh! Why? he asked.

Lyall got up and tiptoed to the door, listening intently. No sound came from the outside. He open the door and peeped out. There was not a soul in the hall. The servants were all busy in the other parts of the house. He gently closed the door again and resume his seat.. "Because tonight at midnight, Valmon Dain will be a dead man," he said grimly. He said it in a voice that was husky with effort, yet vibrant with convincing purpose. He said it also in blissful ignorance of the listening ear at the whispering wires in the laboratory above Kingsway, the listening ear which noted every word and listened for more.

Valmon Dain did not move a muscle as that grim threat came whispering into his phones. He just pulled a pad over to his elbow and jotted down all that was being said in the study at Greydene.

He knew that Lyall was not putting up a bluff. There was sincerity, menace in every word he spoke. Lyall despite his aristocratic presence and perfect manner, was a man who harboured the heart of a thug, the cold, brutal soul of a Paris Apache.

Dain muttered to himself quietly: "At midnight eh, Mr Lyall? well , you'll have to step like a cat on hot bricks if you come to my house."

Tansy's voice came over the wires again in a hoarse croak:.

"D'yer mean that guv'nor?"

"I do." Lyall's reply was quietly final. "At midnight i shall break into his house. five minutes after I have gain entry Valmon Dain be a corpse. I swear that, if I never move from here, Dain knows too much----hes too much of a good thing altogether. We are only committing suicide by letting him live."

"Well, count me out of it anyway. He's too slick for the likes of me."

"I know it. For one thing you haven't the nerve to tackle a man like Dain. for another, you haven't the brain. Pushing a man into the Thames at night , or stabbing a man in the back is one thing. But the erasing from life of a man like Valmon Dain is another. A method will have to be found. something more subtle, something that will carry the conviction the job was not premeditated."

"Going to use the gun then guv?"

"possibly yes. more probably no. have you ever heard of Z.H.9?"

"Who's he?"

"it isn't a he, it's a gas."

"Oh!"

"Quite a strong, extremely effective gas. perhaps it's greatest beauty lies in the fact that quite a small amount of it suffices. it doesn't kill, it just stupefies."

"Does which?"

"Stupefies. Renders a man unconscious. it's action is almost instantaneous. A German Invention of course. the perfection of one if their more virulent war gases."

"And you're going to give a lungful of that are you?"

"I. propose to. I have here a capsule." He produced a small leaden box containing half a dozen from his pocket. "Dain will probably be sleeping at that hour. It will merely be necessary to get into his room and break one of these capsules under his nose. After that, one can arrange things accordingly."

Tansy nodded. "Ruffle the room up a bit and then hit him over the forehead with a jemmy," he said.

"That remain to be seen. A good deal will depend on the way the land lies when I get there. Now for the other end of it. You say you will seeing the rest of the boys tonight?".

"Yes. There's a horse nobbling job coming along, and we want to be on it.".

Very well. you will put the word round and arrange it that I have spent the evening with you. you understand? Just in case of accidents ; something might go wrong in an unexpected moment, and I might have to make my get-away without due concern for the trail I leave behind me. The thing is unthinkable if course, but due consideration must be given to all possible contingencies. You will have to fix me up an alibi that couldn't be shaken by all the Law officers of the crown sitting in conference together."

"I'll see to it, guv'nor."

"Font make it too obvious. change your venue very now and then. And take particular note of the times. Go along to Jefferson's his is a fairly decent hotel. Tell him I've dined there. I played billiards with him and lost. We had a pony on the game, and I hadn't the cash on me. So I wrote him a cheque. just a moment, and I'll write one now." He scribbled out a cheque for twenty five pounds and handed it to Tansy. Here is it, Tell him to pay it in to his cash desk somewhere about eleven o'clock, and to make sure that it goes round to the bank in the usual way in the morning.

"Jules' night club will do for the rest of the evening--- stay till two in the morning. P. will order food and fizz, and have it booked down on my bill. I'll be back here at home by two o'clock in the morning, and we shall be ridded for ever of the cursed enigma. is that all quite clear?"

"clear as mud, guv'nor. I'll see to it. And the boys will know how to fix it up for you. "Taint the first time, is it?"

Lyall smiled a little contemptuously.

"no, it isn't ," hr said. "it probably won't be the last either. I'll let you out myself."

There was a silence on the straining wires, and Valmon Dain pulled out his plugs.