Outside in the vestibule the Duke looked at his watch. It was ten
minutes past nine.
The girl by his side was quiet, but her eyes never left his face.
"I'm going to do it," he said grimly. He looked at her and of a sudden
took her face between his hands and kissed her.
"You're worth it," he said simply.
St. John's station was ten minutes walk from the hall.
The three (for Hank led the way) reached there in five. The station
inspector was on the platform, a courteous man with a cheerful eye and a
short grey beard. Hank was to the point.
"I want you to flag the Continental," he said.
"That's an Americanism, isn't it," smiled the inspector. "You want me
to put the signal against the Continental Mail." Hank nodded.
"I won't say it cannot be done," said the inspector, "but there will
have to be a very urgent reason."
"That," said the admiring Hank, "is the kind of talk I like to hear;"
and he told the official the whole story. The inspector nodded. "Next
platform," he said shortly and ran for the signal box.
As they reached the platform the green light that gave "road clear" to
the Continental swung up to red.
"Here's all the money I have," said Hank quickly: he emptied his pockets
into the Duke's hands. "I'll get the Dover 'phone busy, charter a
tug--you'll have to take your chance about the boat. She'll pull up if
you signal her. I'll send you some money by wireless--here she comes."
She came--the noisy Continental reluctantly slowing down, steaming and
snorting and whistling at the indignity.
The Duke bustled in, the starting signal fell....
"Look after the house!" shouted the Duke from the window. The train was
on the move, when a man came flying down the steps.
"Stop _you_!" yelled Hank.
"Bang! bang! bang!..."
A group of porters surrounded the recumbent figure of Mr. Bill Slewer of
Four Ways, who lay with a bullet in his leg cursing in a strange
language.
Bill's revolver had fallen on to the metals, but Hank's slim
Smith-Wesson hung in his hand still smoking.
"You must do the 'phoning," he said to the white-faced girl. "I shall
have to stay and explain away William."
In the meantime the tail-lights of the Continental had disappeared round
the curve.
*Part III*
*THE DUKE RETURNS*
*I*
Sir Harry Tanneur stood with his back to the library fire, in a
disconsolate mood.
An industrious authority on heraldry had that morning rendered the
report of a great discovery which at any other time would have filled
the heart of the knight with joy, namely the connexion of the house of
Tanneur with the Kings of France through Louis de Tendour and the
Auvegian Capels.
There was little consolation in the Lilies of France, and meagre
satisfaction to be derived from the "bloody hand en fesse on a field
fretty." Sir Harry's mind was occupied with the contents of a letter
which had arrived by the same post as the herald's report. It was brief
and to the point.