Chapter V: Sergeant Smith: His Opinions and Adventures

"Sergeant Smith is in charge of the party deputed to watch the redoubtable Coggins at Pangford. The Sergeant is a North country man, senior to me in the force, but of more recent promotion, a very hard-working, conscientious man, but, to tell truth, I felt that Smith was not quite a match for the wily Coggins. I did not let Macgregor take the motor into the town, but waited outside the houses while Macgregor went on foot and brought Sergeant Smith to report and confer with me.

"Sergeant Smith had a strange tale to relate. It appears to him that Coggins has his heart in his new business. The Sergeant prudently keeps out of Coggins' way himself for fear of recognition, but neither of his men have ever seen him or been seen by him, and they drop from time to time into the bar parlor of the Balin Arms. From that 'coign of vantage' they can hear Coggins in the commercial room, talking loud in broken English, laughing, singing snatches of French songs, vociferating in his foreign way, joking with his fellow-travelers, boasting of his commercial successes, and then again talking over his many customers. For he has introduced some wonderful 'cheap lines,' as commercial people call them, in silk ties, smart handkerchiefs, all sold at remarkably low prices. He is out day after day, and at all times of the day, with the inn dog-cart and the hostler's boy. He visits all the neighboring village shops, and talk of him has gone round the country. 'I suppose,' said Sergeant Smith, 'he will get a dozen calls in a day from the small shopkeepers in the towns and villages round about to get more of his cheap stuff.'

"'And no one, I suppose, has any suspicion about him?' I asked.

"'No danger! They just think him a smart business man opening up a new line, and willing to let his stuff go cheap at first. Naturally, they want to make hay while the sun shines--and sometimes, Sergeant Morgan, I ask myself if this Mr. Dubois, as he calls himself--' Sergeant Smith pondered.

"'You ask yourself,' I suggested, 'if Mr. Dubois is really Gentleman Coggins after all?'

"'Just so,' said Smith, laughing. 'We are beginning here to ask ourselves that.'

"'I cannot help you, Sergeant Smith, I've never seen Coggins--but you have.'

"'That's just it,' said Smith. 'I've taken many a squint at this fellow Dubois through windows and the like, and for the life of me I can't spot him. The real Coggins is a sallow, clean-shaven fellow, just like one of those actor chaps you can see any day by the dozen in the Strand, and the real Coggins pulls a long face. Now this man is a rosy-gilled fellow--that's smiling and laughing all the time, no moustache, but a stiff black beard, shaved a bit on the cheeks, and going under his chin like a Newcastle ruff--French fashion.'

"'I don't think the office have made any mistake. Stick to him, Sergeant. It's Coggins, you bet!'

"'I will stick to him, and I have stuck to him, Coggins or not Coggins,' said Sergeant Smith, 'and I'll give you an example of how I've done it. Yesterday he ordered the inn dog-cart and drove out. It was close upon three o'clock in the afternoon. I thought I would follow him on my bicycle, as I had often done before in the last three weeks that we have been watching him. I had not noticed that he had taken his own bicycle with him in the cart, covered with a rug. He drove to a village beyond Balin, got out and did business at the general shop. I held back out of sight, and when I came up to the trap again the hostler's lad was driving alone.'

"'Why,' said I to the boy, 'where's Mr. Dubois?'

"'He had his bicycle with him,' said the lad, 'and he goes to Pincote village and gets me to leave samples at places on the way back to Pangford.'

"'Gone to Pincote, is he?'

"'So I pedaled on fast, and presently got him in sight again, and he led me a pretty chase long past Pincote, up and down very bad roads, and I thought I'd just go up to him for once, and ask him what the devil he was up to. Just at this moment Dubois dashed into a narrow lane and I followed him. I felt I had the speed of him, and was overhauling him fast, when--whuff!--I ran over something and punctured my tyre badly, very badly, and presently I had to pull up. I got down, it was a clean cut, and in another part of the tyre were two tin tacks stuck fast. Had Coggins, or Dubois, whichever it is, sprinkled the road with glass and tacks, or was it the work of some cantankerous fellow who lived near the lane? I saw my man pedaling steadily ahead, and presently he was out of sight.

"'My bicycle was useless, and I stood over it, thinking what I should do next. As I stood there cursing my luck I heard a rustic come singing and whistling down the lane from the direction toward which I had been traveling.

"'He was a simple-looking young fellow in a tucked-up smock frock and leather gaiters, with a little battered wide-awake hat on the back of his head. He carried a bill-hook on his shoulder, and tied to the bill by a bit of string was a pair of thick, rough hedger's gauntlets.

"'He stopped whistling _The Girl I Left Behind Me_, as he saw me--stood and stared with his mouth open for a good minute, then began to grin from ear to ear like an idiot.

"'Practicing to grin through a horse collar, are you, my lad?' I said. 'Did you never see a punctured tyre before?'

"'Forgie I,' said the fellow, in a strong Somersetshire brogue. 'Forgie I, zur, fer a venturing to laugh, but I niver zee two punctured uns in Farmer Joyce's lane, a one day afoor!' and he laughed out loud.

"'What?' I said. 'Is the other fellow caught too?'

"'Ay, zur, at t'other end of the lane, and a swearing so terrible bad I had to move away from he. Ha! ha! It do tickle I!'

"Then he looked suddenly serious. 'Yer moightend want a bit o' hedging and ditching done, zur? I foinds my own gloves and my own bill 'uk.'

"'He leant his bill-hook on the ground and dangled his great leathern gloves at me.

"'I'm reckoned a foine worker!' he added.

"'Tell me where's the nearest blacksmith's forge,' I said, 'and I'll give you sixpence.'

"'Will ee now, zur?' he said with a greedy look in his eyes, and he came near and held his hand out. 'T'other gentleman gave I a shilling for tellin' he, but I'll take sixpence from you, zur.'

"'I put a shilling into his open hand and he began to direct me. 'You be to go up droo the lane and keep a trending and a turning to your left and then to your right, and then to your left and then to your right again, droo the moorland till you come plump on to a horse pond that's just over against Jem Bevan's forge, only yer can't see the forge rightly till you'm turned the next carner. Do ee understand I, zur? and thanking yer for your shilling, I'll be going on whoam, zur.'

"'The young rustic was whistling again, and presently he broke into his song again of _The Girl I left Behind Me_. I suppose it was a sort of rustic chaff on his part.

"'I dragged my bicycle up through the lane and out upon the common, but I never saw a trace of the man I was after, nor did I find Jem Bevan's forge.'

"'But I suspect, Sergeant Smith, that you had found Gentleman Coggins himself.'

"'What, the grinning idiot with the bill-hook! Never! Remember, I know Coggins by sight. This fellow was just a silly Somersetshire lad with an accent you could cut with a knife.'

"I said no more, but I had my doubts. 'Tell me one thing, Sergeant Smith. Is the man Dubois often away in the night-time? Did you miss him, for instance, on the night of the 23d when the burglary at the Abbey was done?'

"'No, Sergeant Morgan, we did not.' The detective took out his note-book, and turning back to the date in question, read out the following:

"'January 23d.--Dubois, supposed Coggins, went out on bicycle in early morning and never returned till dark. Saw several visitors before leaving, said to be from neighboring villages--some of them took samples away with them. He received these customers mostly in little private office off his bedroom--my man had looked into this office in his absence one day, found it spread with samples, mostly cheap silks and neckties. Same day, brisk business. Inn servants and people in commercial room complain of Dubois's noisiness. At 9.30 in the evening, a man, said to be from Pincote, came to see him. Dubois angry, sent him away, reproved him loudly for coming to see him late and just as he was going to bed.

"'Allowed man to take parcel of samples, but refused to do other business with him, told him he must come again at nine next morning. Dubois called out in the hearing of inn servants that he was going to turn in. Man left muttering. Dubois was heard overhead in his bedroom for some time. Officer remained on watch all night in neighborhood of inn. Dubois did not go out. Nothing further happened.'

"'Thank you, Sergeant Smith. Tell your men to keep their eyes skinned. They have to deal with a sharp fellow in Coggins--very clever at disguises. Let them be sure he doesn't go out disguised and leave one of his fellows to stamp about on the floor overhead, making them think Coggins himself is at home.'

"Sergeant Smith did not relish my advice.

"'I thank you, Sergeant,' he said stiffly, 'for your counsel, I will do my duty to the best of my ability.'