At ten o’clock next morning Jimmy O’Loughlin entered the commercial
room of his hotel. Miss Blow was breakfasting by herself. Miss
Farquharson, who had finished her breakfast an hour earlier, was
writing letters at one end of the long table, having folded back the
white cloth. Mrs. Dick and Mrs. Sanders were still in their bedrooms,
mourning for their husbands.
“There’s five police after coming into the town from Ballymoy,” said
Jimmy excitedly; “and it’s what I’m after hearing from Moriarty that
there’s more expected.”
Miss Blow looked up from her breakfast. Her face expressed irritation
and incredulity.
“It’s the truth I’m telling you,” said Jimmy. “Begad, but Mr. Goddard’s
the fine man.”
“You told us last night,” said Miss Farquharson, “that Mr. Goddard had
vanished like every one else. Has he appeared again?”
“He never was lost, thanks be to God! He was up with Lord Manton
beyond at the Castle, devising plans and concocting stratagems for the
settling of the matter that’s been troubling you; and settled it’ll be
now the one way or the other.”
“I know the sort of plans he and Lord Manton would be likely to
devise,” said Miss Blow, scornfully. “I’ve had some experience of them.”
She poured out a cup of tea as she spoke and devoted herself to
her breakfast. Bridgy burst into the room. She appeared to be in a
condition of violent excitement.
“There’s four police on a car,” she said, “driving up to the barrack,
and two more along with them on bicycles.”
“Is that four more on top of the first five?” asked Jimmy O’Loughlin.
“It is, it is,” said Bridgy. “The Lord save us and help us! There’d
hardly be more of them if there was to be a Member of Parliament making
speeches about the land!”
“There now,” said Jimmy O’Loughlin, reproachfully, to Miss Blow. “What
did I tell you? Sure, Mr. Goddard’s as fine a man as e’er a one that’s
in it. It’s himself will do a job in fine style when once he takes it
in hand at all. That’s eleven men, and Constable Moriarty makes twelve,
and there was a sergeant with the first lot that I seen myself. Was
there e’er a sergeant on the other car, Bridgy?”
“There was,” said Bridgy. “I took notice of him passing, and one of
them two that came on bicycles had two stripes on his arm.”
“That makes two sergeants and an acting sergeant,” said Jimmy
O’Loughlin. “What more would you expect? What more would anybody want,
unless it would be a gunboat sent round from Cork? And that’s what you
could hardly expect, unless it might be for an eviction on one of the
islands.”
“I’ll see what all these men are going to do,” said Miss Blow, “before
I give an opinion about them. I’ve been----”
“Here’s Mr. Goddard himself,” said Jimmy O’Loughlin, who was standing
near the window, “and his lordship along with him. And they have the
big waggonette from the Castle and the dog-cart with the yellow cob in
it. Be damn, but it’s great!”
Miss Farquharson stood up and looked out of the window. Miss Blow,
obstinately sceptical, continued to eat her breakfast. Mr. Goddard and
Lord Manton entered the room.
“Ladies,” said Mr. Goddard. “In a quarter of an hour we start for
Rosivera.”
“At the head of a small army,” said Lord Manton. “Twelve men armed with
carbines, not counting Mr. Goddard, who wears a sword.”
“Fifteen men,” said Mr. Goddard. “I’m expecting three more. They may
arrive at any minute.”
“I suppose,” said Miss Blow, “that this is some new kind of trick.”
“Come and see,” said Mr. Goddard. “Lord Manton has placed his
waggonette at your disposal. We invite your presence. We insist upon
it.”
“My niece and Mrs. Dick,” said Miss Farquharson, “are still in their
bedrooms.”
“Get them out,” said Lord Manton, “as quickly as possible. There is no
time to be lost. Military expeditions of this sort cannot possibly be
delayed.”
“If so be,” said Jimmy O’Loughlin, “that you’ll be wanting me, as a
magistrate, to be taking depositions or the like----”
“We don’t absolutely require you,” said Lord Manton; “but we’ll be glad
to have you with us.”
“It’ll be better, then,” said Jimmy, “if I go upstairs and put on a
decent coat and shave myself. Bridgy, will you run like a good girl and
get me a cup of hot water?”
“You may change your coat,” said Mr. Goddard, “but you can’t shave.
There isn’t time.”
Miss Blow and Miss Farquharson left the room together.
“Would you have any objection to telling me,” said Jimmy O’Loughlin,
“what is it that you’re thinking of doing?”
“It’s Lord Manton’s plan,” said Mr. Goddard, “not mine. The fact is,
we’re going to Rosivera to marry Mr. Red either to Miss Blow or Miss
Farquharson.”
“And is that the reason you have the police gathered from the four
corners of the county?”
“It is,” said Mr. Goddard.
“I wouldn’t wonder but you’re right. It’s ten to one he won’t care for
the notion; not but what Miss Blow is a fine-looking young lady, and
that’s what I’ve always said since the first time ever I set eyes on
her.”
The street of Clonmore, the single street which runs from end to end
of the village, presented a most unusual appearance when Miss Blow,
followed by the other three ladies, emerged from the hotel. A long
line of vehicles stretched from the door of the post-office to the
barrack. There were two cars, each holding four policemen. They had
their carbines between their knees and presented a most warlike and
determined appearance. Next came a third car, Jimmy O’Loughlin’s, with
two policemen on one side of it, the side left vacant being intended
for Mr. Goddard. Behind it was Lord Manton’s dogcart. Jimmy O’Loughlin
was on the back seat, Lord Manton sat beside the groom in front. Next
came the waggonette with Mrs. Patsy Devlin in it. The acting sergeant
and the constable who had arrived on bicycles stood beside their
machines immediately behind the waggonette. They formed a kind of
rear-guard, and could be counted on to frustrate any attempt which Mr.
Red might make to attack the party from behind.
An eager crowd thronged the footpaths and broke into a cheer when the
ladies appeared.
“Miss Blow, Miss Farquharson and ladies----” said Mr. Goddard, when the
noise of the cheering had subsided.
“We thought you were murdered too,” said Mrs. Dick.
“Kindly do not interrupt me,” said Mr. Goddard. He felt that he was at
last in a position to assert himself even in the face of Miss Blow. A
man acquires self-confidence when he is in command of an armed force.
“We start,” he said, “for Rosivera, to discover whether Mr. Red, the
man Red, as he has been well described, the tenant of that house, has
anything to do with the extraordinary series of disappearances which
have disturbed the peace of this neighbourhood.”
Lord Manton said, “Hear, hear!” from his seat in the dogcart, and the
crowd cheered again.
“We invite your presence, ladies, and place the waggonette which you
see at your disposal. When you are seated in it we start at once. God
save the King!”
“Hear, hear!” said Lord Manton again.
The four ladies, a little bewildered by this oration, took their seats
in the waggonette. Mr. Goddard got up on his car and gave the order to
march. The expedition started.
An hour’s steady driving brought the party to the top of the hill from
which the gate of Rosivera is visible. Mr. Goddard gave the order to
halt. It was passed forward to the leading car, and the expedition came
to a standstill on the summit of the hill. Mr. Goddard got down from
his car and walked up to Lord Manton.
“It’s a damned awkward thing,” he said, “to march up to a man’s house
at the head of a body of men like this.”
“Don’t say you’re thinking of going back,” said Lord Manton. “It would
be a shame to disappoint Miss Blow.”
“I’m not going back; but all the same it’s awkward. What excuse shall I
make?”
“If he’s been kidnapping people,” said Lord Manton, “he won’t expect
you to make any excuse.”
“Oh, of course, if he really has. But has he?”
“The only way of finding out for certain is to go and see. Miss Blow
won’t be satisfied with anything less.”
“Damn Miss Blow. Anyhow, we needn’t drive up to the house as if we were
a funeral.”
He gave an order to the police, who dismounted. Mr. Goddard marched
at the head of them down the hill. Lord Manton and Jimmy O’Loughlin
followed. The ladies, led by Miss Blow, also followed. At the gate of
Rosivera, Mr. Goddard halted his party. He ordered the police to remain
outside the gate. He invited Lord Manton to accompany him to the house.
Then with a glance at the ladies he told one of the sergeants not to
allow any one else to pass the gate.
Miss Blow reached the bottom of the hill and prepared to follow Mr.
Goddard along the avenue. She was stopped by the sergeant. Suspecting
some trick to be played on her at this last and critical moment, she
suggested to Miss Farquharson that they should force their way through
the cordon of police, by making, all four of them, a simultaneous rush.
Miss Farquharson refused to do anything of the sort, and gave it as
her opinion that Mrs. Sanders and Mrs. Dick would be quite useless in
a hand-to-hand conflict. Miss Blow left her, walked a little way along
the road, crossed a ditch, and began to climb the wall which enclosed
the Rosivera grounds. The police eyed her doubtfully. They did not want
to lay violent hands on Miss Blow. They excused themselves to their own
consciences. Their orders were to prevent her passing through the gate.
Mr. Goddard had said nothing about what was to be done if she climbed
the wall.
Mr. Goddard and Lord Manton surveyed the house. It looked peaceful, too
peaceful. There was no sign of its being inhabited.
“Are you sure,” said Mr. Goddard, “that there’s anybody here?”
“I’m not sure,” said Lord Manton. “I only know that I let the house to
the man Red. He may or may not be living in it. I never saw him.”
Mr. Goddard walked up to the door and knocked. There was no answer.
He knocked again. Still there was no answer. He turned the handle and
pushed. The door resisted his push. It was locked.
“What shall we do now?” he said to Lord Manton.
Then he caught sight of Miss Blow, who was crossing the gravel sweep.
“Go back,” he said; “go back at once. This is no place for ladies.”
“I won’t go back,” said Miss Blow. “If I did you’d not enter the house
at all. You would come back in ten minutes and say you had searched it
and that there was nobody inside.”
“My dear Miss Blow,” said Lord Manton, “Mr. Goddard may perhaps
deserve that, but surely I don’t. Be just. Give me credit for common
honesty.”
“I’m sorry I can’t do that,” said Miss Blow.
“You might,” said Lord Manton. “I gave you tea yesterday.”
“You can come with us if you like,” said Mr. Goddard; “but how do you
propose to get in? The door is locked.”
“The top of that is open,” said Miss Blow, pointing with her finger to
the window at the left side of the door, “so I suppose the bottom can
be pushed up.”
Mr. Goddard felt like a burglar, which is an unpleasant sensation for a
police officer, but one which he was getting gradually accustomed to.
He had experienced it when he hid in the stable of Jimmy O’Loughlin’s
hotel and when he entered his own house by way of the back garden.
He had experienced it when he drove out of Ballymoy in the early
morning and when he tried to escape from Lord Manton’s library. He
had experienced it again when he concealed himself in the Clonmore
post-office. He opened the window and climbed in. Miss Blow followed
him. Lord Manton, moving rather stiffly, for he was not used to
climbing, followed her. They stood together in the dining-room.
“Dear me,” said Lord Manton, “what a very remarkable taste Mr. Red has
in wall decoration! Yellow dragons on a crimson ground! Did you ever
see anything like that before, Miss Blow?”
Miss Blow made no answer. She was opening the doors of the small
cupboards in the sideboard, in the hope, perhaps, of discovering the
mutilated remains of some of Mr. Red’s victims. She found nothing but
empty bottles and some wine-glasses.
“Even the door,” said Lord Manton, “has been painted, and there is a
large yellow dragon on it, a mother dragon with several young ones.
You’d better follow her, Goddard.”
He added this hurriedly, and obviously did not refer to the female
dragon. Miss Blow had opened the door and passed through it into the
hall.
“The door opposite to you,” said Lord Manton, “leads into the
drawing-room.”
It did not look like a drawing-room when they entered it. A heavy deal
table, like a carpenter’s bench, stood in the middle of the floor, and
on it were a number of curiously shaped metal flasks. There was a pile
of long brass tubes in one corner of the room, which looked like empty
cartridge cases, intended to contain ammunition for some very large
gun. There were wooden shelves all round the walls stocked with thick
glass bottles, such as are seen in chemists’ shops, bottles with glass
stoppers. In one corner the floor was charred, as if a fire had been
lighted on it.
“Nobody here,” said Mr. Goddard, looking round.
Lord Manton was staring curiously at the things about him. He picked up
one of the brass tubes.
“A.M.B.A.,” he read. “What do you suppose that means, Miss Blow? Hullo!
She’s gone again. After her, Goddard! We can’t allow her to escape.
There may be an explosion at any moment. This place looks uncommonly
explosive, and if she is shattered into little bits her father will
hold us responsible.”
Miss Blow stood at the bottom of the stairs, listening intently.
“I hear a noise in the upper story,” she said. “The house isn’t empty.”
Mr. Goddard and Lord Manton listened.
“There is a noise,” said Lord Manton. “Goddard, unsheathe your sword
and proceed cautiously up the first flight of stairs. We will protect
your rear.”
They reached the first floor of the house and the noise became much
more plainly audible.
“It sounds to me,” said Lord Manton, “as if Mr. Red--the man Red, I
mean--and his friends were having a hurdle race in the attics.”
“Go on,” said Miss Blow.
“Let us pause for a moment,” said Lord Manton, “and consider the
situation before we rush headlong into some unknown danger. I am
inclined to think that several men are jumping hurdles, and from the
occasional violence of the bumps I should say that one of them is a
heavy man, much heavier than the others. Can you infer anything else
from the noise we hear, Miss Blow? Or you, Goddard? Very well, if
neither of you can, we may as well go on, bearing in mind that there
are several men and that one of them is large.”
They climbed two more flights of stairs and reached the top story of
the house. The noise sounded very loud. Guided by it they reached the
door of a room at the end of the passage. Mr. Goddard knocked. There
was no reply, but this did not surprise him, for the noise inside was
so great as to drown the knock.
“Go in,” said Miss Blow.
Mr. Goddard turned the handle. “The door is locked,” he said.
“The key is on the outside,” said Miss Blow. “Turn it.”
“As landlord of the house,” said Lord Manton, “allow me.”
He turned the key and flung open the door. Inside were Dr. O’Grady, Mr.
Dick, Patsy Devlin, Sergeant Farrelly and Constable Cole. They were
playing leapfrog. Mr. Sanders sat on a bed in the corner and watched
them. Dr. O’Grady, executing a splendid bound over Sergeant Farrelly’s
broad back, landed on his feet opposite the door just as it opened.
“Adeline Maud,” he said, “I’m delighted to see you. Have you been here
long? I hope you weren’t kept waiting at the door.”