I wondered for a moment if the back of our residence was being watched. The Chinese crime tsar seemed to have unlimited manpower at his command. But then I realized that Wiggins and the irregulars were no doubt already on the scene and would have notified Holmes had our rear been under surveillance.
With the leaving of MacDonald, Holmes had some instructions for Gilligan. To facilitate them, he crossed to the desk and scrawled an address on a sheet of paper, which he tendered to our ally.
"Slim, here's where Barker had lodgings during his London residence, which was terminated in such an unfortunate manner. The front door has a Crowley lock. You might find the back more convenient. There are two windows to his living room, either of which will not delay you more than thirty seconds. I noted that there is convenient ivy on the back wall of the building as well. While I spent some time going through Barker's things, a more detailed search is called for."
"Right you are, Guv," replied the cracksman, with his ready smile. "It's a pleasure doin' biz wiv you. Every little caper is like a summer breeze."
"Let's hope they are all like this one." For a brief moment there was that gleam in Holmes's eyes that was reserved for very few people indeed. "But think, my good fellow, how reassuring it is to know that a complex problem would become simple in your deft hands."
Holmes was habitually sparing in his praise, and I knew of very few who commanded his respect. Not all of them, associates like Gilligan. Von Herder, the blind mechanic who had worked for Moriarty, was one. Van Seddar, the Dutch gem expert associated with Count Sylvius was another. And, of course, that late Napoleon of crime, Moriarty and his right-hand man, Colonel Sebastian Moran, were held in the highest esteem by the sleuth for their talents if not for their motives and morals. Gilligan had his place in this diverse and limited group.
Holmes and Gilligan departed together and I assumed that my friend was leading the cracksman to the upper story, where there was access to the roof of 221B. Gilligan had a pronounced preference for rooftops. How he intended to vacate our residence and reach the adjacent building I had not the faintest idea but I had no doubt that he would accomplish this feat, and with ease. Holmes had many times mentioned that the mark of the expert was the ability to make the difficult seem commonplace and, considering some of his own amazing solutions to baffling problems, I was certainly ready to agree with him.
In but a short time, Holmes returned with a satisfied air.
"It is said that one is judged by one's associates, which makes me the most fortunate of men. To secure an aide who will follow instructions implicitly is one thing and not an easy one. But to secure a Gilligan who can think on the spot and adapt himself to a changing scene, that is a treasure indeed."
Through my mind flashed a series of incidents when I had blundered on a wrong trail, and my face must have expressed this painful recollection or possibly Holmes divined the memories that his comment would awaken.
"Come now, good fellow, we all make our contributions in our particular style and where would I have been on many occasions without your invaluable presence?" Sentiment was rare for the sleuth and I could see him erase it promptly. "To prove my point," he continued, "do you have readily available that piece of heavy ordnance you carry on occasion?"
"I can secure it in a trice," I stammered, quickly, glad to be of some use.
"Do so by all means and check its load. I shall caution Mrs. Hudson and Billy not to answer the door below without alerting us first. Some caution from here on in will not be amiss."
When we retired for the night, I had the feeling that our cozy domicile was in a state of seige, a most unusual situation indeed.
14
The Removal of the Bird
147
The following morning there was no trace of the Chinaman on the street outside. Holmes, with his breakfast coffee at hand, wrote a cable to the Trans-Continental Insurance Company advising them to settle the claim of Amos Gridley, and composed another to Vasil D'Anglas in Berlin intimating that the Bird might be in his possession shortly.
This last communique piqued my interest, of course.
"Then you really expect Basil Selkirk to place the statue in your hands."
"How I wish I had a direct answer for you, Watson. He said he would and there was no reason for him to make an idle promise. Unless it was a ploy to gain time. But time for what? Selkirk spent a great deal of money securing the Bird for the sheer joy of foiling his rival, Chu San Fu. Why relinquish his prize at the moment of triumph? Wait!" Holmes said, suddenly.
Whatever idea had come to his mind, it was sufficiently promising to cause him to spring from his chair at the breakfast table and begin to pace our sitting room nervously.
"It ties in," he muttered, after four or five circuits of the immediate area. His thin face dominated by the famous hawklike nose centered on me and there was a realization in his piercing eyes. "Let us backtrack, good fellow. We were decoyed from London to Berlin and upon arrival were under the surveillance of at least two Chinese. They stayed with us as far as Serbia and then disappeared. Upon our return to London and during our excursion to St. Aubrey, there was no sign of them. Then last night we were again under the observation of a tool of Chun San Fu. Why, it is all becoming as plain as a pike staff. The Oriental divined that Amos Gridley was the man who secured the Golden Bird from Dowson. He did not realize that the wood-worker was but an emissary and assumed that if he could find him, he would find the statue. Knowing we were also on the trail of the Bird, he lured us from London at the time that he closed in on Gridley." An added thought furrowed Holmes's brow and he resumed his pacing for a moment before continuing.
"Why his hatchet men should follow us on the Orient Express is puzzling. My theory grows thin there. However, of a sudden, we are of interest to Chu again even though he has disposed of Gridley without retrieving the Bird and has certainly realized that Basil Selkirk is the man who has thwarted him."
Another thoughtful silence allowed me to try and collect my thoughts. "Dear me, Holmes, I am more confused than ever."
"As well you might be. But consider Selkirk, the master chessman who uses men as pawns and countries as bishops. Selkirk realizes that Chu's attention will be attracted to him. In his guarded enclave this might cause him scant concern, but still, he does not underestimate Chu. Fortuitously, a splendid catspaw drops into his lap. Something to divert the Oriental crime tsar away from him."
"A catspaw?"
"That we are both looking at, my good Watson. We are the catspaw. Basil Selkirk lets it be known that we shall be in possession of the Golden Bird, which explains the Chinaman's renewed interest in our movements."
Holmes crossed to the window with his quick stride.
"No watcher in evidence, which tells us nothing.
Chu's spies may have secured a less conspicuous vantage point than a dark doorway. But here come, not one, but two carriages and it seems as though they will stop outside." Turning to me with that bright, almost small-boy look of triumph, he repeated a favorite phrase of his: "It had to be."
It was. Joining Holmes at his observation point I watched two closed carriages come to a stop at the curbing adjacent to our door. There seemed to be a number of burly men in the vehicles, but only one emerged from the lead one. It was the heavily built Sam Merton. There was a box in his hand and he gave the street a rapid glance up and down before proceeding to the entrance to 221B, with that insolent grace frequently evident in the very powerful. I had last seen the professional boxer in Selkirk's castle. A known intimate of Count Negretto Sylvius, Dowson's right-hand man, I was not surprised to see the puglilist on this mission once Holmes had explained what was in the wind.