"Now I wonder," I said, "if I might have a little quiet conversation
with Mr. Rolston."
"By all means," he replied. "I'll wait in the courtyard."
"I shouldn't do that, Mr. Sliddim. Why not take a tour round?"
I led him out of the room into the passage which served for hall,
pressed a couple of pounds into his hand and had the satisfaction of
seeing him leap away down the stairs like an antelope.
"That's all right," said Rolston. "Now he'll go and get blotto, it's the
poor devil's failing. Still, he'll be happy."
I sat down, passed my cigarette case to Rolston, and waited for him to
begin.
He sort of came to attention.
"I was rung up, Sir Thomas, at your flat--at least your valet was--and
told to come to the office of the _Evening Special_ at once."
"I know, go on."
"I dressed as quickly as I could, ran down the stairs and jumped into
the waiting cab. The door banged and we started off. The engines must
have been running, for we went away like a flash. There was some one
else sitting there. A hand clapped over my mouth and an arm round my
body. I couldn't move or speak. Then the thumb of the hand did something
to the big nerves behind my ear. It's an Oriental trick and I had just
realized it when something wet and sweet was pressed over my mouth and
nose, and I lost all consciousness.
"When I woke up I found myself in a fair-sized room, lit by a skylight
high up in the roof. There was a bed, a table, a chair, and various
other conveniences, and I hadn't the slightest idea where I could be. My
head ached and I felt bruised all over, so I drank a glass of water,
crawled back into the bed and slept. When I woke again there was an
affable Chink sitting by my side, who spoke quite good English.
"'You will,' he said, 'be kept here for some time in durance, yess. It's
an unfortunate necessity, yess.'
"I heard on all sides familiar noises. I knew in a moment what had
happened. I had been brought back to the works at the base of the three
towers."
"All this fits in very well with what I now know, Rolston. I'll tell you
everything in a minute, but I want to hear your story first."
"Very good, Sir Thomas. For over three months I've been kept a prisoner
at Richmond. I wasn't badly treated. I had anything I liked to eat and
drink, any books to read--tobacco, a bath--everything but newspapers,
which were rigidly denied me. I wasn't kept entirely to my prison room.
I was allowed to go out and take exercise within the domain surrounded
by the great thirty-foot wall, though I was never let to roam about as I
wished. There was always a big Chinese coolie with a leaded cane
attending me, a man that only spoke a few words of English.
"Now, Sir Thomas, please remember this. From first to last none of my
jailers knew that I understood Chinese. And none of them knew or
suspected that I had been among the workmen before, in order to get
materials for the scoop with which I came to you."