LITMIR.BIZ

Скачать книгу

got yourself out of a tight place very well,” he said gravely. “I congratulate you. You displayed a great deal of ingenuity and carried your part through well.”

      Tommy blushed, his face assuming a prawnlike hue at the praise.

      “I couldn’t have got away but for the girl, sir.”

      “No.” Sir James smiled a little. “It was lucky for you she happened to—er—take a fancy to you.” Tommy appeared about to protest, but Sir James went on. “There’s no doubt about her being one of the gang, I suppose?”

      “I’m afraid not, sir. I thought perhaps they were keeping her there by force, but the way she acted didn’t fit in with that. You see, she went back to them when she could have got away.”

      Sir James nodded thoughtfully.

      “What did she say? Something about wanting to be taken to Marguerite?”

      “Yes, sir. I suppose she meant Mrs. Vandemeyer.”

      “She always signed herself Rita Vandemeyer. All her friends spoke of her as Rita. Still, I suppose the girl must have been in the habit of calling her by her full name. And, at the moment she was crying out to her, Mrs. Vandemeyer was either dead or dying! Curious! There are one or two points that strike me as being obscure—their sudden change of attitude towards yourself, for instance. By the way, the house was raided, of course?”

      “Yes, sir, but they’d all cleared out.”

      “Naturally,” said Sir James dryly.

      “And not a clue left behind.”

      “I wonder——” The lawyer tapped the table thoughtfully.

      Something in his voice made Tommy look up. Would this man’s eyes have seen something where theirs had been blind? He spoke impulsively:

      “I wish you’d been there, sir, to go over the house!”

      “I wish I had,” said Sir James quietly. He sat for a moment in silence. Then he looked up. “And since then? What have you been doing?”

      For a moment, Tommy stared at him. Then it dawned on him that of course the lawyer did not know.

      “I forgot that you didn’t know about Tuppence,” he said slowly. The sickening anxiety, forgotten for a while in the excitement of knowing Jane Finn was found at last, swept over him again.

      The lawyer laid down his knife and fork sharply.

      “Has anything happened to Miss Tuppence?” His voice was keen-edged.

      “She’s disappeared,” said Julius.

      “When?”

      “A week ago.”

      “How?”

      Sir James’s questions fairly shot out. Between them Tommy and Julius gave the history of the last week and their futile search.

      Sir James went at once to the root of the matter.

      “A wire signed with your name? They knew enough of you both for that. They weren’t sure of how much you had learnt in that house. Their kidnapping of Miss Tuppence is the counter-move to your escape. If necessary they could seal your lips with a threat of what might happen to her.”

      Tommy nodded.

      “That’s just what I thought, sir.”

      Sir James looked at him keenly. “You had worked that out, had you? Not bad—not at all bad. The curious thing is that they certainly did not know anything about you when they first held you prisoner. You are sure that you did not in any way disclose your identity?”

      Tommy shook his head.

      “That’s so,” said Julius with a nod. “Therefore I reckon some one put them wise—and not earlier than Sunday afternoon.”

      “Yes, but who?”

      “That almighty omniscient Mr. Brown, of course!”

      There was a faint note of derision in the American’s voice which made Sir James look up sharply.

      “You don’t believe in Mr. Brown, Mr. Hersheimmer?”

      “No, sir, I do not,” returned the young American with emphasis. “Not as such, that is to say. I reckon it out that he’s a figurehead—just a bogy name to frighten the children with. The real head of this business is that Russian chap Kramenin. I guess he’s quite capable of running revolutions in three countries at once if he chose! The man Whittington is probably the head of the English branch.”

      “I disagree with you,” said Sir James shortly. “Mr. Brown exists.” He turned to Tommy. “Did you happen to notice where that wire was handed in?”

      “No, sir, I’m afraid I didn’t.”

      “H’m. Got it with you?”

      “It’s upstairs, sir, in my kit.”

      “I’d like to have a look at it sometime. No hurry. You’ve wasted a week”—Tommy hung his head—“a day or so more is immaterial. We’ll deal with Miss Jane Finn first. Afterwards, we’ll set to work to rescue Miss Tuppence from bondage. I don’t think she’s in any immediate danger. That is, so long as they don’t know that we’ve got Jane Finn, and that her memory has returned. We must keep that dark at all costs. You understand?”

      The other two assented, and, after making arrangements for meeting on the morrow, the great lawyer took his leave.

      At ten o’clock, the two young men were at the appointed spot. Sir James had joined them on the doorstep. He alone appeared unexcited. He introduced them to the doctor.

      “Mr. Hersheimmer—Mr. Beresford—Dr. Roylance. How’s the patient?”

      “Going on well. Evidently no idea of the flight of time. Asked this morning how many had been saved from the Lusitania. Was it in the papers yet? That, of course, was only what was to be expected. She seems to have something on her mind, though.”

      “I think we can relieve her anxiety. May we go up?”

      “Certainly.”

      Tommy’s heart beat sensibly faster as they followed the doctor upstairs. Jane Finn at last! The long-sought, the mysterious, the elusive Jane Finn! How wildly improbable success had seemed! And here in this house, her memory almost miraculously restored, lay the girl who held the future of England in her hands. A half groan broke from Tommy’s lips. If only Tuppence could have been at his side to share in the triumphant conclusion of their joint venture! Then he put the thought of Tuppence resolutely aside. His confidence in Sir James was growing. There was a man who would unerringly ferret out Tuppence’s whereabouts. In the meantime Jane Finn! And suddenly a dread clutched at his heart. It seemed too easy… . Suppose they should find her dead … stricken down by the hand of Mr. Brown?

      In another minute he was laughing at these melodramatic fancies. The doctor held open the door of a room and they passed in. On the white bed, bandages round her head, lay the girl. Somehow the whole scene seemed unreal. It was so exactly what one expected that it gave the effect of being beautifully staged.

      The girl looked from one to the other of them with large wondering eyes. Sir James spoke first.

      “Miss Finn,” he said, “this is your cousin, Mr. Julius P. Hersheimmer.”

      A faint flush flitted over the girl’s face, as Julius stepped forward and took her hand.

      “How do, Cousin Jane?” he said lightly.

      But Tommy caught the tremor in his voice.

      “Are you really Uncle Hiram’s son?” she asked wonderingly.

      Her voice, with the slight warmth of the Western accent, had an almost thrilling quality. It seemed vaguely familiar to Tommy, but he thrust the impression aside as impossible.

      “Sure

Скачать книгу