The Penguin Book of Gaslight Crime - Michael Sims [110]
Sorry though he was for the madman the President could not help laughing. Then he tried to look sympathetic, and he comforted: “Well, that’s hard luck, old man. Uh, let’s see. You might produce some parents or relatives or somebody to prove that Jasper never did have a twin brother.”
“My parents are dead, and I’ve lost track of their kin—I was born in England—Father came over when I was six. There might be some cousins or some old neighbors, but I don’t know. Probably impossible to find out, in these wartimes, without going over there.”
“Well, I guess we’ll have to let it go, old man.” The President was pressing the buzzer for his secretary and gently bidding her: “Show Mr. Holt out, please.”
From the door John desperately tried to add: “You will find my car sunk—”
The door had closed behind him. The President had not listened.
The President gave orders that never, for any reason, was John Holt to be admitted to his office again. He telephoned to the bonding company that John Holt had now gone crazy; that they would save trouble by refusing to admit him.
John did not try to see them. He went to the county jail. He entered the keeper’s office and said quietly: “I have stolen a lot of money, but I can’t prove it. Will you put me in jail?”
The keeper shouted: “Get out of here! You hoboes always spring that when you want a good warm lodging for the winter! Why the devil don’t you go to work with a shovel in the sand pits? They’re paying two-seventy-five a day.”
“Yes, sir,” said John timorously. “Where are they?”
EDGAR WALLACE
No author in this book was more successful during his lifetime than Edgar Wallace. He wrote at least 175 novels of, not surprisingly, wildly varying quality. He has the distinction of having had more films made from his books than any other author in history: more than 160, according to one source. Wallace also wrote a couple of dozen plays, as well as uncountable numbers of short stories, newspaper articles, and essays. Somehow he found time to gamble disastrously, to run for political office and fail, and to marry twice. One other item always jumps off his résumé and into any article about Wallace: when he died, he was in Hollywood working on the script for King Kong.
Wallace was not above recycling plots from one form to another. Although his characters are entertaining and seldom generic, especially his detective J. G. Reeder and his thief Four Square Jane, his tales are definitely plot-driven. His short stories often follow a favorite series character, but most of his novels are one-time outings. A couple of exceptions include 1905’s The Four Just Men, about world-class vigilantes who kill people who are otherwise beyond the hand of justice, and a series of African adventures launched in 1918 with Sanders of the River.
Wallace’s first story about the woman whom news media have nicknamed “Four Square Jane” appeared in the December 13, 1919, issue of The Weekly News in London. It was entitled simply “Four Square Jane,” and ten years later the entire series appeared in book form under the same title. The narrative progresses from story to story, so for the book publication Wallace replaced story titles with chapter numbers. The following adventure comprises chapter 3. Lord Claythorpe finds himself repeatedly victimized as the book goes on, while Peter Dawes pursues Jane from caper to caper, usually remaining just a step behind.
In this story, a commissioner at Scotland Yard asks about Jane the kind of question that has been asked about every rogue in this book: Did anyone actually see the thief? And in reply he gets the same sort of answer that every other investigator gets when these smooth professionals come in and do their work and leave: Well, yes and no.
FOUR SQUARE JANE
Chief Superintendent Dawes, of Scotland Yard, was a comparatively young man, considering the important position he held. It was the boast of his department—Peter himself did very little talking about his achievements—that never once, after