The Toff on Fire Read Online Free

looked at the stocking.
    â€œWho was she?” Esmeralda asked.
    â€œAs a matter of fact,” said Rollison, “she was as brave as any resistance hero; she was a beauty, and she died without naming the man who really sent her to the gallows. A man known as the Doc—an East End criminal who began a kind of protection racket among lesser thieves and fences. One of the fences fought back, when he was blackmailed. The Doc asked for five hundred pounds, threatening to give the police proof that the fence dealt in stolen goods, and—”
    â€œWhere did the girl come in?” interpolated Esmeralda.
    Wylie watched Rollison closely; intently.
    â€œShe collected the money from the Doc’s victims,” Rollison said, “and this one said he knew who the Doc was and would give him away rather than pay a penny. To save her man, the girl killed the fence—and died for it.”
    Esmeralda breathed: “And this—this beast called the Doc let her die?”
    â€œHe couldn’t have saved her,” Rollison said practically. “He did try—he sent big sums of money to the best defending counsel in the country, but the evidence was too strong.”
    â€œWhat a sordid story,” Jane Wylie said.
    â€œLife, m’dear, life in the raw,” declared Wylie.
    â€œThere’s one thing you haven’t told us,” Esmeralda pointed out. “Why is the stocking here?”
    â€œThe fence who died had a queer idea that I’d help him against the Doc—and he’d sent for me. I arrived a few moments after the murder. The girl was getting through a window, and I held her by the legs. She was wearing those.”
    There was a deep quiet in the room.
    Then, there came a sound which Rollison fancied he had heard before, a faint, distant whimper. Imagination.
    â€œRolly,” asked Esmeralda, “what was her name?”
    â€œJessica Gay,” said Rollison. “She came from a good home, and the Doc first ruined and then led her to the gallows. One day—”
    The whimper came again. Imagination?
    Rollison saw Jane Wylie glance towards the door, then at her husband, who appeared to have noticed nothing. The story of Jessica Gay seemed to have shocked him deeply.
    â€œYa,” came the sound, more loudly and quite clearly. “Ya, ah, ya, ah, ya.”
    This time, Wylie turned his head sharply, and Esmeralda looked at the door; and then back at Rollison. He was so startled that he was nonplussed, so completely unaware of the baby that he did not look even slightly ill-at-ease.
    â€œYa-ah, ya-ah, ya.”
    The two women and John Wylie did not turn round this time, but continued to stare at Rollison; and it was well they did, or they would have missed the sight of a lifetime. One moment he stood staring almost foolishly at the door, the next he moved so swiftly that he seemed to be in two places at once. He reached the door but did not open it wide, just turned the handle and opened it an inch. Then he stood waiting, as if someone stood outside, ready to do him harm.
    More clearly than before, and much more crossly, came the now familiar sound. “Ya, ah, ya, ah, ya, ah.”
    â€œThat’s a baby!” Jane Wylie exclaimed, and jumped up and made for the door.
    â€œStay there,” said Rollison in a sharp, commanding voice, “stand still. All of you.” And with one arm thrust out to check Jane Wylie’s progress, he listened as if for other sounds.
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Chapter Three
The Mind Of Esmeralda
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    In the pause which followed and the tension which Rollison’s manner had created, there sounded only the heavy breathing of John Wylie, and a kind of snuffling from the lounge hall. Then the snuffling stopped, but only to give way to a muffled crying.
    Jane Wylie moved swiftly towards the door, in spite of Rollison.
    â€œThat’s a baby!”
    â€œThat’s right,” agreed Rollison, “and I’m wondering where