Edgar Wallace: The Joker

Jim ran into Evory Street station.

‘I want to sec Harlow quick!’ he said breathlessly.

‘He’s all right; he was asleep the last time I saw him,’ said the inspector on duty.

‘Let me see him,’ said Jim impatiently; and followed the jailer down the corridor till they stopped outside Cell No 9.

The jailor squinted through the peep-hole. Suddenly he uttered an exclamation and turned the lock. The cell was empty!

When they visited the garage, the dark blue car was gone; and though this was found later abandoned on the Harwich road, the Splendid Harlow had vanished as though the earth had opened; nor was he ever seen again, though sometimes there came news from the continent of gigantic operations engineered through Spanish banks by an unknown plutocrat.

The Splendid Harlow had cached most of his money in Spain, but though Jim visited that country, he pursued no inquiries. People on their honeymoon have very little time for criminal investigation.

‘If I had only known about that infernal police station!’ he said once, as they were loafing through the Puerta del Sol.

Aileen changed the subject at the earliest possible moment.

For she had known about the plank beds which were doors to freedom.

It was too good a joke for Harlow to keep to himself. And in telling her he ran very little risk. He was an excellent judge of human nature.

THE END