Inspector Jacks was in luck at last. Eleven times he had called at St. Thomas's Hospital and received the same reply. Today he was asked to wait. The patient was better--would be able to see him. Soon a nurse in neat uniform came quietly down the corridor and took charge of him.
"Ten minutes, no more," she insisted good-humoredly.
The Inspector nodded.
"One question, if you please, nurse," he asked. "Is the man going to live?""Not a doubt about it," she declared. "Why?"
" A matter of depositions," the Inspector exclaimed. "I'd rather let it go, though, if he's sure to recover.""It's a simple case," she answered, "and his constitution is excellent. There isn't the least need for your to think about depositions. Here he is. Don't talk too long."The Inspector sat down by the bedside. The patient, a young man, welcomed him a little shyly.
"You have come to ask me about what I saw in Pall Mall and opposite the Hyde Park Hotel?" he said, speaking slowly and in a voice scarcely raised above a whisper. "I told them all before the operation, but they couldn't send for you then. There wasn't time."The Inspector nodded.
"Tell me your own way," he said. "Don't hurry. We can get the particulars later on. Glad you're going to be mended.""It was touch and go," the young man declared with a note of awe in his tone. "If the omnibus wheel had turned a foot more, Ishould have lost both my legs. It was all through watching that chap hop out of the taxicab, too."The Inspector inclined his head gravely.
"You saw him get in, didn't you?" he asked.
"That's so," the patient admitted. "I was on my way--Charing Cross to the Kensington Palace Hotel, on a bicycle. There was a block--corner of Pall Mall and Haymarket. I caught hold--taxi in front--to steady me."The nurse bent over him with a glass in her hand. She raised him a little with the other arm.
"Not too much of this, you know, young man," she said with a pleasant smile. "Here's something to make you strong.""Right you are!"
He drained the contents of the glass and smacked his lips.
"Jolly good stuff," he declared. "Where was I, Mr. Inspector?""Holding the back of a taxicab, corner of Regent Street and Haymarket," Inspector Jacks reminded him.
The patient nodded.
"There was an electric brougham," he continued, drawn up alongside the taxi. While we were there, waiting, I saw a chap get out, speak to some one through the window of the taxi, open the door, and step in. When we moved on, he stayed in the taxi.
Dark, slim chap he was," the patient continued, "a regular howling swell,--silk hat, white muffler, white kid gloves,--all the rest of it.""And afterwards?" the Inspector asked.
"I kept behind the taxi," the youth continued. "We got blocked again at Hyde Park Corner. I saw him step out of the taxi and disappear amongst the vehicles. "A moment or two later, I passed the taxi and looked in--saw something had happened--the fellow was lying side-ways. It gave me a bit of a start. I skidded, and over I went. Sort of had an idea that every one in the world had started shouting to me, and felt that I was half underneath an omnibus. Woke up to find myself here.""Should you know the man again?" the Inspector asked. "I mean the man whom you saw enter and leave the taxi?""I think so--pretty sure!"
The nurse came up, shaking her head. Inspector Jacks rose from his seat.
"Right, nurse," he said. "I'm off. Take care of our young friend.
He is going to be very useful to us as soon as he can use his feet and get about. I'll come and sit with you for half an hour next visiting day, if I may?" he added, turning to the patient.
"Glad to see you," the youth answered. "My people live down in the country, and I haven't many pals."Inspector Jacks left the hospital thoughtfully. The smell of anaesthetics somehow reminded him of the library in the house at the corner of St. James' Square. It was not altogether by chance, perhaps, that he found himself walking in that direction. He was in Pall Mall, in fact, before he realized where he was, and at the corner of St. James' Square and Pall Mall he came face to face with Prince Maiyo, walking slowly westwards.
The meeting between the two men was a characteristic one. The Inspector suffered no signs of surprise or even interest to creep into his expressionless face. The Prince, on the other hand, did not attempt to conceal his pleasure at this unexpected encounter.
His lips parted in a delightful smile. He ignored the Inspector's somewhat stiff salute, and insisted upon shaking him cordially by the hand.
"Mr. Inspector Jacks," he said, "you are the one person whom Idesired to see. You are not busy, I hope? You can talk with me for five minutes?"The Inspector hesitated for a moment. He was versed in every form of duplicity, and yet he felt that in the presence of this young aristocrat, who was smiling upon him so delightfully, he was little more than a babe in wisdom, an amateur pure and simple. He was conscious, too, of a sentiment which rarely intruded itself into his affairs. He was conscious of a strong liking for this debonair, pleasant-faced young man, who treated him not only as an equal, but as an equal in whose society he found an especial pleasure.
"I have the time to spare, sir, certainly," he admitted.
The Prince smiled gayly.
"Inspector Jacks," he said, "you are a wonderful man. Even now you are asking yourself, What does he want to say to me--Prince Maiyo? Is he going to ask me questions, or will he tell me things which I should like to hear?' You know, Mr. Inspector Jacks, between ourselves, you are just a little interested in me, is it not so?"The detective was dumb. He stood there patiently waiting. He had the air of a man who declines to commit himself.
