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First published in Great Britain by
LONG 1938
Copyright © Francis Durbridge 1938
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Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work
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This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the authorâs imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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Source ISBN: 9780008125523
Ebook Edition © June 2015 ISBN: 9780008125530
Version: 2015-06-01
âSuperintendent Harvey and Inspector Dale, sir!â
âAll right, Sergeant, you can go. Let me have the map some time before noon.â
Sir Graham Forbes, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, stood up to greet the new arrivals. He was a tall man with iron-grey hair and a sparse figure. Even the black coat and striped trousers, which gave him the appearance of a City stockbroker, could not conceal that his early career had been spent with the Army. He contrasted strangely with the two men who now came into his office at Scotland Yard.
Dale was a man of medium height and build who always seemed unhappy and helpless without his bowler hat, and the umbrella which nobody ever remembered seeing unfurled.
The superintendent was a full head taller. He was a man of mighty frame whose bronzed face might have made the casual stranger mistake him for the more successful type of farmer. But he possessed a fund of wisdom and mellow humour, coupled with an astuteness that he would reveal in some urbane remark, that few farmers possessed.
Superintendent Harvey and Chief Inspector Dale had been placed in charge of the mysterious robberies, the size and scope of which had literally staggered the country. It was now their unpleasant task to give the Commissioner an account of yet another mysterious robbery which had occurred in Birmingham only a few hours before.
âItâs the same gang, sir!â Chief Inspector Dale was saying. He spoke quietly, but the calm, clear note of efficiency sounded in his voice. âThereâs no question of it. £8,000 worth of diamonds.â
The Commissioner looked worried. Monocle in hand, he strode backwards and forwards across the heavily carpeted room.
âThe night watchman is dead, sir!â Superintendent Harvey added.
âDead?â There was no mistaking the surprise in Sir Grahamâsâ voice.
âYes.â
âThe poor devil was chloroformed,â Dale explained. âI donât think they meant to kill him. According to the doctor, he was gassed during the War, and his lungs were pretty groggy.â
The news had not put Sir Graham in the best of tempers. âThis is bad, Dale!â he said irritably. âBad!â he repeated with emphasis.
âHe was a new man,â said Harvey. âHeâd only been with Stirlingâs a month or so.â
âDid you check up on him?â
âYes. His name was Rogers. âLeftyâ Rogers. He was working at Stirlingâs under the name of Dixon.â
The hint in the superintendentâs words, and the inflexion of his voice was not lost on the Commissioner.