The Master Criminal

Book Excerpt

GUY had ten minutes to spare as he stepped out of the cab at St. Pancras Station, and, handing a bag to a porter, made his way leisurely to the booking office and took a ticket for Lynn. He would have been easily recognized by any of his acquaintance, for he had made no effort to disguise himself. Hora professed no liking for physical or material disguises, contending, indeed, that such were merely the clumsy devices of incompetence.

Yet on this occasion he had not been long on the platform before he was betrayed into the wish that for once he had assumed some disguise. The porter to whom he had entrusted his bag had deposited it in the corner of a first-class smoking compartment, and Guy strolled along the waiting train, glancing into each compartment in turn, in order to locate the messenger who, if Hora's deductions were correct, was to travel by it. He had made no plans as to the means he was to take to obtain a knowledge of the dispatches. Nor had Hora made any suggestions.