The Missing Angel by Erle Cox — Read

For a few weeks Tydvil's days and nights passed in uneventful happiness. August had passed into late September. Although he by no means neglected his empire in C. B. & D., there were afternoons during which he did not appear at the office. The widening circle of friends made by Basil Williams were making some demands on the daylight hours as well as those of darkness. He was aware, but made no sign of his awareness, that Basil Williams was under close observation by unobtrusive men. In police quarters he was a subject of occasional heated argument, because, on comparing notes, different officers claimed to have watched him in diverse activities in diverse places. Inspector Kane himself had read a detailed report on a merry picnic Basil Williams had adorned one Saturday at Beaumauris. At the time the picnic was in progress he had been introduced to Sir Cyril Oliver by their mutual friend Archie Stone on the Moonee Ponds racecourse. Sir Cyril had been in a genial mood and freely forgave Kane for the inconvenience of his arrest.

Kane had also unprofitable consultations with Senior Constable O'Connor on the subject of the place of abode of Basil Williams. Every attempt that had been made to trace him, or anyone resembling him, to his lair, had been a dismal failure. Williams or his doubles seemed to have an uncanny power of vanishing into thin air if he turned a corner or entered a building. Unfortunately, also, no Basil had committed any act that could be construed into a breach of the law.