The Door with Seven Locks

DICK MARTIN'S last official job (as he believed) was to pull in Lew
Pheeney, who was wanted in connection with the Helborough bank robbery.
He found Lew in a little Soho cafe, just as he was finishing his coffee.

"What's the idea, colonel?" asked Lew, almost genially, as he got his
hat.

"The inspector wants to talk to you about that Helborough job," said
Dick.

Lew's nose wrinkled in contempt.

"Helborough grandmothers!" he said scornfully. "I'm out of that bank
business - thought you knew it. What are you doing in the force, Martin?
They told me that you'd run into money and had quit."

"I'm quitting. You're my last bit of business."

"Too bad you're falling down on the last lap!" grinned Lew. "I've got
forty - five well - oiled alibis. I'm surprised at you, Martin. You know
I don't 'blow' banks; locks are my speciality - -"

"What were you doing at ten o'clock on Tuesday night?"

A broad smile illuminated the homely face of the burglar.

"If I told you, you'd think I was lying."

"Give me a chance," pleaded Dick, his blue eyes twinkling.

Lew did not reply at once. He seemed to be pondering the dangers of too
great frankness. But when he had seen all sides of the matter, he spoke
the truth.

"I was doing a private job - a job I don't want to talk about. It was
dirty, but honest."

"And were you well paid?" asked his captor, polite but incredulous.

"I was - I got one hundred and fifty pounds on account. That makes you
jump, but it is the truth. I was picking locks, certainly the toughest
locks I've ever struck, and it was a kind of horrible job I wouldn't do
again for a car - load of money. You don't believe me, but I can prove
that I spent the night at the Royal Arms, Chichester, that I was there
at eight o'clock to dinner and at eleven o'clock to sleep. So you can
forget all that Helborough bank stuff. I know the gang that did it, and
you know 'em too, and we don't change cards."

They kept Lew in the cells all night whilst inquiries were pursued.
Remarkably enough, he had not only stayed at the Royal Arms at
Chichester, but had stayed in his own name; and it was true that at a
quarter to eleven, before the Hedborough bank robbers had left the
premises, he was taking a drink in his room, sixty miles away. So
authority released Lew in the morning and Dick went into breakfast with
him, because, between the professional thief - taker and the
professional burglar there is no real ill - feeling, and Sub - Inspector
Richard Martin was almost as popular with the criminal classes as he was
at police headquarters.