Detective Conan Quarter Of Silence Eng Sub Download 23
Marylee Guffy
The office was the headquarters of the Insular and Continental SteamNavigation Company, colloquially known as the I. and C., and occupiedthe second floor of a large block of buildings at the western end ofFenchurch Street. The Company was an important concern, and owned afleet of some thirty steamers ranging from 300 to 1000 tons burden,which traded between London and the smaller Continental ports. Lowfreights was their specialty, but they did not drive their boats, andno attempt was made to compete with the more expensive routes in thematter of speed. Under these circumstances they did a large trade inall kinds of goods other than perishables.
He was just in time, for the hatches of the lower forehold, in whichthe casks were stowed, had been cleared and were being lifted off ashe arrived. As he stood on the bridge deck waiting for the work to becompleted he looked around.
The fore-hatch being open, Broughton climbed down into the hold armedwith his notebook, and the unloading of the casks began. They wereswung out in lots of four fastened together by rope slings. As eachlot was dealt with, the clerk noted the contents in his book, fromwhich he would afterwards check the invoices.
The work progressed rapidly, the men straining and pushing to get theheavy barrels in place for the slings. Gradually the space under andaround the hatch was cleared, the casks then having to be rolledforward from the farther parts of the hold.
The leaking casks were turned damaged end up and lifted aside fortemporary repairs. The third barrel was found to be uninjured, butwhen they came to the fourth it was seen that it had not entirelyescaped.
As he was returning across the half-dozen yards to join the foreman,his eye fell on the little heap of sawdust that had fallen out of thecrack, and the glitter of some bright object showing through itcaught his attention. He stooped and picked it up. His amazement ashe looked at it may be imagined, for it was a sovereign!
The foreman smiled and disappeared, returning with a hammer and coldchisel. The broken piece at the end of the stave was entirelyseparated from the remainder by the crack, but was held in positionby one of the iron rings. This piece Harkness with some difficultydrove upwards, thus widening the crack. As he did so, a little showerof sawdust fell out and the astonishment of the two men was notlessened when with it came a number of sovereigns, which went rollinghere and there over the planks.
It happened that at the same moment the attention of the other menwas concentrated on a quartet of casks which was being slung upthrough the hatches, the nervousness caused by the slip not havingyet subsided. None of them therefore saw what had taken place, andBroughton and Harkness had picked up the coins before any of themturned round. Six sovereigns had come out, and the clerk added themto the five he already had, while he and his companionunostentatiously searched for others. Not finding any, they turnedback to the cask deeply mystified.
With some difficulty the loose piece of the stave was hammered up,leaving a hole in the side of the barrel some six inches deep bynearly four wide. Half a capful of sawdust fell out, and the clerkadded to it by clearing the broken edge of the wood. Then he placedthe cap on the top of the cask and they eagerly felt through thesawdust.
They stood gazing at the prosaic looking barrel, outwardly remarkableonly in its strong design and good finish, marvelling if beneath thatcommonplace exterior there was indeed hidden what to them seemed afortune. Then Harkness crouched down and looked into the cask throughthe hole he had made. Hardly had he done so when he sprang back witha sudden oath.
He held the cap as before, and the foreman carefully picked out withthe cold chisel the sawdust surrounding the fingers. As its levellowered, the remainder of the hand and the wrist gradually becamerevealed. The sight of the whole only accentuated the firstimpression of dainty beauty and elegance.
That a serious crime had been committed he felt sure, and that it washis duty to report his discovery immediately he was no less certain.But there was the question of the consignment of wines. He had beensent specially to the docks to check it, and he wondered if he wouldbe right to leave the work undone. He thought so. The matter wasserious enough to justify him. And it was not as if the wine wouldnot be checked. The ordinary tallyman was there, and Broughton knewhim to be careful and accurate. Besides, he could probably get aclerk from the dock office to help. His mind was made up. He would gostraight to Fenchurch Street and report to Mr. Avery, the managingdirector.
Though the clerk saw at a glance the name was the same as that on thelabel on the cask, he pretended to read it with care whileconsidering his reply. This man clearly was the consignee, and if hewere told the cask was there he would doubtless claim immediatepossession. Broughton could think of no excuse for refusing him, buthe was determined all the same not to let it go. He had just decidedto reply that it had not yet come to light, but that they would keepa look-out for it, when another point struck him.
The damaged cask had been moved to the side of the hold next thedock, and it occurred to the clerk that any one standing on the wharfbeside the hatch could see it. For all he knew to the contrary, thisman Felix might have watched their whole proceedings, including themaking of the hole in the cask and the taking out of the sovereigns.If he had recognised his property, as was possible, a couple of stepsfrom where he was standing would enable him to put his finger on thelabel and so convict Broughton of a falsehood. The clerk decided thatin this case honesty would be the best policy.
The managing director took the note and turned back into his privateoffice to read it. He was puzzled. He had said at 11.15 he would beengaged for half an hour. Therefore, Mr. Felix would only have hadfifteen minutes to wait. As he opened the envelope he wondered whythat gentleman could not have spared this moderate time, after comingall the way from the docks to see him. And then he was puzzled again,for the envelope was empty!
He stood in thought. Had something occurred to startle Mr. Felix whenwriting his note, so that in his agitation he omitted to enclose it?Or had he simply made a mistake? Or was there some deep-laid plot?Well, he would see what Scotland Yard thought.
It happened that about a year previously the shipping company hadbeen the victim of a series of cleverly planned robberies, and, infollowing up the matter, Mr. Avery had become rather well acquaintedwith two or three of the Yard Inspectors. One of these in particularhe had found a shrewd and capable officer, as well as a kindly andpleasant man to work with. On arrival at the Yard he therefore askedfor this man, and was pleased to find he was not engaged.
Puzzled but not disheartened, Inspector Burnley drove back toScotland Yard, his mind full of the mysterious happenings, and hispocket-book stored with all kinds of facts about the Bullfinch, hercargo, and crew.
Police Constable Z76, John Walker in private life, was a newly-joinedmember of the force. A young man of ideas and of promise, he tookhimself and his work seriously. He had ambitions, the chief of whichwas to become a detective officer, and he dreamed of the day when hewould have climbed to the giddy eminence of an Inspector of the Yard.He had read Conan Doyle, Austin Freeman, and other masters ofdetective fiction, and their tales had stimulated his imagination.His efforts to emulate their heroes added to the interest of lifeand, if they did not do him very much good, at least did him no harm.
Coming along the street to meet him was a four-wheeled dray drawn bya light brown horse. On the dray, upended, was a large cask. Two mensat in front. One, a thin-faced, wiry fellow was driving. The other arather small-sized man, was leaning as if wearied out against thecask. This man had a black beard.
Constable Walker took another look at the reddish-brown paint.Curiously patchy it looked. Some parts were fresh and more or lessglossy, others dull and drab. And then his excitement rose again tofever heat. He knew what that meant.
A thought struck him and he looked keenly at the mottled side. Yes,he was not mistaken. He could see dimly under the flat coat, fainttraces of white lettering showing out lighter than the old blueground. And then his heart leaped for he was sure! There was nopossible chance of error!
He let the vehicle draw ahead, keeping his eye carefully on it whilehe thought of his great luck. And then he recollected that thereshould have been four men with it. There was a tall man with a sandymoustache, prominent cheekbones, and a strong chin; a small, lightlymade, foreign-looking man with a black beard and two others whosedescriptions had not been given. The man with the beard was on thedray, but the tall, red-haired man was not to be seen. Presumably thedriver was one of the undescribed men.
The quarry led steadily on in a northwesterly direction, ConstableWalker following at a considerable distance behind. At the end of theHolloway Road it passed through Highgate, and continued out along theGreat North Road. By this time it was growing dusk, and the constabledrew slightly closer so as not to miss it if it made a sudden turn.
Suddenly the dray stopped and a man got down and opened the gate of adrive on the right-hand side of the road. The constable melted intothe hedge some fifty yards behind and remained motionless. Soon heheard the dray move off again and the hard, rattling noise of theroad gave place to the softer, slightly grating sound of gravel. Asthe constable crept up along the hedge he could see the light of thedray moving towards the right.
A narrow lane branched off in the same direction immediately beforereaching the property into which the dray had gone. The drive, infact, was only some thirty feet beyond the lane and, so far as theconstable could see, both lane and drive turned at right angles tothe road and ran parallel, one outside and the other inside theproperty. The constable slipped down the lane, thus leaving the thickboundary hedge between himself and the others.
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