The Crystal Claw by William Le Queux

Here was a new and extraordinary complication.

Why was Stanley Audley, alias Philip Graydon, in possession of forged notes from the notorious factory in South America? Why had he attempted to destroy one of them, while leaving the others in a drawer?

In the hope, though it was but faint, of getting further information about Audley, I telephoned to Marigold Day and asked her to dine with me at the Piccadilly Hotel.

She promptly accepted, and during the meal I brought the talk round to Audley, telling her of his remarkable disappearance from the room in Seton's Hotel in Lancaster Gate.

"But are you really certain it was Mr. Audley? " she asked.

"Quite," I replied. "Seton's description of him bears no possible room for doubt. Besides, he had known Audley for a long time and there is no possibility that he can have made a mistake."

"It is an extraordinary thing if he has been in London that he did not let me know," she said, frowning and evidently puzzled.

"Yes, that is so, but we have to remember that for some unaccountable reason he seems to have decided to completely efface himself."

"Harold Ruthen believes that he is hiding in Paris," she said.

"But from whom should he be hiding, and why? " I questioned. "Do you think that he can possibly be hiding from the police?"

"I don't know what to think," she replied with a sigh, "but why do you suggest the police."

"Well," I answered, "I think you ought to know that a very strange thing happened at Lancaster Gate. When we searched the room we found in the grate a half-burned Bank of England fifty-pound note. In a drawer were three others. And all of them have been found to be forgeries."

"Ah, then you know," said the girl with a queer, hard look that I had never seen in her eyes before.

"That is all I know," I said, "and I wondered whether you could tell me any more. Is it on account of these forged notes that he is hiding? It certainly looks very like it, and I have no doubt whatever that that will be the view of the police. What does Ruthen say?"

"He hasn't told me anything, but I remember one queer incident. Once when we were out together he paid for supper with a five-pound note and we were about to go out when the manager of the restaurant came back and declared it to be a forgery. Stanley apologized profusely, and gave the man another in its place, explaining that he had cashed a cheque at his club and they had given it to him with four others. Apparently the others he had were genuine. I did not think much of it at the time -- such a thing, of course, might easily have happened -- but after what you have told me I don't know what to believe."

It was difficult to believe that the young fellow who had married Thelma and for whom I had formed a genuine liking, could be the ally of a gang of bank-note forgers, yet the evidence was becoming overwhelming.

"But I thought you told me Audley was well off," I said. "Well-to-do people don't usually descend to dealing in forged notes."

"He always appeared to be," was Marigold's reply, "but possibly that was how he made his money. As a matter of fact I really did not know very much about him. I met him through intimate friends and I suppose I more or less took him for granted. He was quite obviously a gentleman and one can't enquire closely into the antecedents of every man one meets."

I wondered whether the girl had in some way stumbled upon the truth. If this were the case, the shock of finding that the man she undoubtedly was beginning to love was involved in such infamous practices as the passing of forged notes would be quite sufficient to explain the strange change Mrs. Powell had noticed and commented on. It was quite clear, from what Mrs. Powell had said, that she had suffered some blow which had utterly upset her. On the other hand, the knowledge that Audley had married Thelma would have been an equally satisfactory explanation.

In answer to a question, Marigold told me she had seen Ruthen at Rector's Club three nights before and had chatted with him. He had then told her that he was still in search of Stanley and that he had been looking for him in Paris. But, although she had questioned him, he would not tell her his motives.