LITMIR.BIZ

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Tommy was now certain of what he had before only suspected. Sir James’s presence in Manchester was not accidental. Far from abandoning the case, as Julius supposed, he had by some means of his own successfully run the missing girl to earth. The only thing that puzzled Tommy was the reason for all this secrecy? He concluded that it was a foible of the legal mind.

      Julius was speaking.

      ‘After dinner,’ he announced, ‘I shall go right away and see Jane.’

      ‘That will be impossible, I fear,’ said Sir James. ‘It is very unlikely they would allow her to see visitors at this time of night. I should suggest tomorrow morning about ten o’clock.’

      Julius flushed. There was something in Sir James which always stirred him to antagonism. It was a conflict of two masterful personalities.

      ‘All the same, I reckon I’ll go round there tonight and see if I can’t ginger them up to break through their silly rules.’

      ‘It will be quite useless, Mr Hersheimmer.’

      The words came out like the crack of a pistol, and Tommy looked up with a start. Julius was nervous and excited. The hand with which he raised his glass to his lips shook slightly, but his eyes held Sir James’s defiantly. For a moment the hostility between the two seemed likely to burst into flame, but in the end Julius lowered his eyes, defeated.

      ‘For the moment, I reckon you’re the boss.’

      ‘Thank you,’ said the other. ‘We will say ten o’clock then?’ With consummate ease of manner he turned to Tommy. ‘I must confess, Mr Beresford, that it was something of a surprise to me to see you here this evening. The last I heard of you was that your friends were in grave anxiety on your behalf. Nothing had been heard of you for some days, and Miss Tuppence was inclined to think you had got into difficulties.’

      ‘I had, sir!’ Tommy grinned reminiscently. ‘I was never in a tighter place in my life.’

      Helped out by questions from Sir James, he gave an abbreviated account of his adventures. The lawyer looked at him with renewed interest as he brought the tale to a close.

      ‘You 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 prawn-like 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 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 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 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 someone 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

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