here i must leave my own proceedings to put in their proper place those of martin hewitt as i subsequently learnt them.
benton street, he found by the directory, turned out of the city road south of old street, so was quite near. he was there in less than ten minutes, and had discovered dragon yard. dragon yard was as small a stable-yard as one could easily find. only the right-hand side was occupied by stables, and there were only three of these. on the left was a high dead wall bounding a great warehouse or some such building. across the first and second of the stables stretched a long board with the legend, “w. gask, corn, hay, and straw dealer,” and underneath a shop address in old street. the third stable stood blank and uninscribed, and all three were shut fast. nobody was in the yard, and hewitt at once proceeded to examine the end stable. the doors were unusually well finished and close-fitting, and the lock was a good one, of the lever variety, and very difficult to pick. hewitt examined the front of the building very carefully, and then, after a visit to the entrance of the yard, to guard against early interruption, returned and scrambled by projections and fastenings to the roof. this was a roof in contrast to those of the other stables. they were of tiles, seemed old, and carried nothing in the way of a skylight; evidently it was the habit of mr. gask and his helpers to do their horse and van business with gates wide open to admit light. but the roof of this third stable was newer and better made, and carried a good-sized skylight of thick fluted glass. hewitt took a good look at such few windows as happened to be in sight, and straightaway began, with the strongest blade of his pocket-knife, to cut away the putty from round one pane. it was a rather long job, for the putty had hardened thoroughly in the sun, but it was accomplished at length, and hewitt, with a final glance at the windows in view, prised up the pane from the end and lifted it out.
the interior of the stable was apparently empty. neither stall nor rack was to be seen, and the place was plainly used as a coach or van house simply. hewitt took one more look about him, and dropped quietly through the hole in the skylight. the floor was thickly laid with straw. there were a few odd pieces of harness, a rope or two, a lantern, and a few sacks lying here and there, and at the darkest end there was an obscure heap covered with straw and sacking. this heap hewitt proceeded to unmask, and having cleared away a few sacks, left revealed about half a dozen rolls of linoleum. one of these he dragged to the light, where it became evident that it had remained thus rolled and tied with cord in two places for a long period. there were cracks in the surface, and when the cords were loosened the linoleum showed no disposition to open out or to become unrolled. others of the rolls on inspection exhibited the same peculiarities. moreover, each roll appeared to consist of no more than a couple of yards of material at most, though all were of the same pattern. every roll, in fact, was of the same length, thickness, and shape as the others, containing somewhere near two yards of linoleum in a roll of some half-dozen thicknesses, leaving an open diameter of some four inches in the centre. hewitt looked at each in turn, and then replaced the heap as he had found it. after this, to regain the skylight was not difficult by the aid of a trestle. the pane was replaced as well as the absence of fresh putty permitted, and five minutes later hewitt was in a hansom bound for crouch end.
3-2
“half a dozen rolls of linoleum”
he dismissed his cab at the police station. within he had no difficulty in procuring a direction to trennatt, the nurseryman, and a short walk brought him to the place. a fairly high wall, topped with broken glass, bounded the nursery garden next the road, and in the wall were two gates, one a wide double one for the admission of vehicles, and the other a smaller one of open pales, for ordinary visitors. the garden stood sheltered by higher ground behind, whereon stood a good-sized house, just visible among the trees that surrounded it. hewitt walked along by the side of the wall. soon he came to where the ground of the nursery garden appeared to be divided from that of the house by a most extraordinarily high hedge extending a couple of feet above the top of the wall itself. stepping back, the better to note this hedge, hewitt became conscious of two large boards, directly facing each other, with scarcely four feet space between them, one erected on a post in the ground of the house, and the other similarly elevated from that of the nursery, each being inscribed in large letters, “trespassers will be prosecuted.” hewitt smiled and passed on; here plainly was a neighbour’s quarrel of long standing, for neither board was by any means new. the wall continued, and keeping by it hewitt made the entire circuit of the large house and its grounds, and arrived once more at that part of the wall that enclosed the nursery garden. just here, and near the wider gate, the upper part of a cottage was visible, standing within the wall, and evidently the residence of the nurseryman. it carried a conspicuous board with the legend, “h. m. trennatt, nurseryman.” the large house and the nursery stood entirely apart from other houses or enclosures, and it would seem that the nursery ground had at some time been cut off from the grounds attached to the house.
hewitt stood for a moment thoughtfully, and then walked back to the outer gate of the house on the rise. it was a high iron gate, and as hewitt perceived, it was bolted at the bottom. within the garden showed a neglected and weed-choked appearance, such as one associates with the garden of a house that has stood long empty.
a little way off a policeman walked. hewitt accosted him and spoke of the house. “i was wondering if it might happen to be to let,” he said. “do you know?”
“no, sir,” the policeman replied, “it ain’t; though anyone might almost think it, to look at the garden. that’s a mr. fuller as lives there—and a rum ‘un too.”
“oh, he’s a rum ‘un, is he? keeps himself shut up, perhaps?”
“yes, sir. on’y ’as one old woman, deaf as a post, for servant, and never lets nobody into the place. it’s a rare game sometimes with the milkman. the milkman, he comes and rings that there bell, but the old gal’s so deaf she never ’ears it. then the milkman, he just slips ’is ’and through the gate rails, lifts the bolt and goes and bangs at the door. old fuller runs out and swears a good ’un. the old gal comes out, and old fuller swears at ’er, and she turns round and swears back like anything. she don’t care for ’im—not a bit. then when he ain’t ’avin’ a row with the milkman and the old gal he goes down the garden and rows with the old nurseryman there down the ’ill. he jores the nurseryman from ’is side o’ the hedge, and the nurseryman he jores back at the top of ’is voice. i’ve stood out there ten minutes together and nearly bust myself a-laughin’ at them gray-’eaded old fellers a-callin’ each other everythink they can think of; you can ’ear ’em ’alf over the parish. why, each of ’em’s ’ad a board painted, ‘trespassers will be prosecuted,’ and stuck ’em up facin’ each other, so as to keep up the row.”
“very funny, no doubt.”
“funny? i believe you, sir. why, it’s quite a treat sometimes on a dull beat like this. why, what’s that? blowed if i don’t think they’re beginning again now. yes, they are. well, my beat’s the other way.”
there was a sound of angry voices in the direction of the nursery ground, and hewitt made toward it. just where the hedge peeped over the wall the altercation was plain to hear.
“you’re an old vagabond, and i’ll indict you for a nuisance.”
“you’re an old thief, and you’d like to turn me out of house and home, wouldn’t you? indict away, you greedy old scoundrel!”
these and similar endearments, punctuated by growls and snorts, came distinctly from over the wall, accompanied by a certain scraping, brushing sound, as though each neighbour were madly attempting to scale the hedge and personally bang the other.
hewitt hastened round to the front of the nursery garden and quietly tried first the wide gate and next the small one. both were fastened securely. but in the manner of the milkman at the gate of the house above, hewitt slipped his hand between the open slats of the small gate and slid the night-latch that held it. within the quarrel ran high as hewitt stepped quietly into the garden. he trod on the narrow grass borders of the beds for quietness’ sake, till presently only a line of shrubs divided him from the clamorous nurseryman. stooping and looking through an opening which gave him a back view, hewitt observed that the brushing and scraping noise proceeded, not from angry scramblings, but from the forcing through an inadequate opening in the hedge of some piece of machinery which the nurseryman was most amicably passing to his neighbour at the same time as he assailed him with savage abuse, and received a full return in kind. it appeared to consist of a number of coils of metal pipe, not unlike those sometimes used in heating apparatus, and was as yet only a very little way through. something else, of bright copper, lay on the garden-bed at the foot of the hedge, but intervening plants concealed its shape.
3-3
“forcing through the hedge some piece of machinery.”
hewitt turned quickly away and made towards the greenhouses, keeping tall shrubs as much as possible between himself and the cottage, and looking sharply about him. here and there about the garden were stand-pipes, each carrying a tap at its upper end and placed conveniently for irrigation. these in particular hewitt scrutinised, and presently, as he neared a large wooden outhouse close by the large gate, turned his attention to one backed by a thick shrub. when the thick undergrowth of the shrub was pushed aside a small stone slab, black and dirty, was disclosed, and this hewitt lifted, uncovering a square hole six or eight inches across, from the foreside of which the stand-pipe rose.
3-4
the stand-pipe in the nursery garden.
the row went cheerily on over by the hedge, and neither trennatt nor his neighbour saw hewitt, feeling with his hand, discover two stop-cocks and a branch pipe in the hole, nor saw him try them both. hewitt, however, was satisfied, and saw his case plain. he rose and made his way back toward the small gate. he was scarce half-way there when the straining of the hedge ceased, and before he reached it the last insult had been hurled, the quarrel ceased, and trennatt approached. hewitt immediately turned his back to the gate, and looking about him inquiringly hemmed aloud as though to attract attention. the nurseryman promptly burst round a corner crying, “who’s that? who’s that, eh? what d’ye want, eh?”
“why,” answered hewitt in a tone of mild surprise, “is it so uncommon to have a customer drop in?”
“i’d ha’ sworn that gate was fastened,” the old man said, looking about him suspiciously.
“that would have been rash; i had no difficulty in opening it. come, can’t you sell me a button-hole?”
the old man led the way to a greenhouse, but as he went he growled again, “i’d ha’ sworn i shut that gate.”
“perhaps you forgot,” hewitt suggested. “you have had a little excitement with your neighbour, haven’t you?”
trennatt stopped and turned round, darting a keen glance into hewitt’s face. “yes,” he answered angrily, “i have. he’s an old villain. he’d like to turn me out of here, after being here all my life-and a lot o’ good the ground ’ud be to him if he kep’ it like he keeps his own! and look there!” he dragged hewitt toward the “trespassers” boards. “goes and sticks up a board like that looking over my hedge! as though i wanted to go over among his weeds! so i stuck up another in front of it, and now they can stare each other out o’ countenance. buttonhole, you said, sir, eh?”
the old man saw hewitt off the premises with great care, and the latter, flower in coat, made straight for the nearest post-office and despatched a telegram. then he stood for some little while outside the post-office deep in thought, and in the end returned to the gate of the house above the nursery.
with much circumspection he opened the gate and entered the grounds. but instead of approaching the house he turned immediately to the left, behind trees and shrubs, making for the side nearest the nursery. soon he reached a long, low wooden shed. the door was only secured by a button, and turning this he gazed into the dark interior. now he had not noticed that close after him a woman had entered the gate, and that that woman was mrs. geldard. she would have made for the house, but catching sight of hewitt, followed him swiftly and quietly over the long grass. thus it came to pass that his first apprisal of the lady’s presence was a sharp drive in the back, which pitched him down the step to the low floor of what he had just perceived to be merely a tool-house, after which the door was shut and buttoned behind him.
3-5
“his first apprisal of the lady’s presence was a sharp
drive in the back.”
“perhaps you’ll be more careful in future,” came mrs. geldard’s angry voice from without, “how you go making mischief between husband and wife and poking your nose into people’s affairs. such fellows as you ought to be well punished.”
hewitt laughed softly. mrs. geldard had evidently changed her mind. the door presented no difficulty; a fairly vigorous push dislodged the button entirely, and he walked back to the outer gate chuckling quietly. in the distance he heard mrs. geldard in shrill altercation with the deaf old woman. “it’s no good you a-talking,” the old woman was saying. “i can’t hear. nobody ain’t allowed in this here place, so you must get out. out you go, now!” outside the gate hewitt met me.
