“You don’t mind, I suppose,” said Bundle after a minute or two, “if I
drive rather fast? I started later than I meant to do.”
It had seemed to Anthony that they were proceeding at a terrific speed
already, but he soon saw that that was nothing compared to what Bundle
could get out of the Panhard if she tried.
“Some people,” said Bundle, as she slowed down momentarily to pass
through a village, “are terrified of my driving. Poor old father, for
instance. Nothing would induce him to come up with me in this old bus.”
Privately, Anthony thought Lord Caterham was entirely justified.
Driving with Bundle was not a sport to be indulged in by nervous,
middle-aged gentlemen.
“But you don’t seem nervous a bit,” continued Bundle approvingly, as
she swept round a corner on two wheels.
“I’m in pretty good training, you see,” explained Anthony gravely.
“Also,” he added, as an afterthought, “I’m rather in a hurry myself.”
“Shall I speed her up a bit more?” asked Bundle kindly.
“Good Lord, no,” said Anthony hastily. “We’re averaging about fifty as
it is.”
“I’m burning with curiosity to know the reason of this sudden
departure,” said Bundle, after executing a fanfare upon the Klaxon
which must temporarily have deafened the neighbourhood. “But I suppose
I mustn’t ask? You’re not escaping from justice, are you?”
“I’m not quite sure,” said Anthony. “I shall know soon.”
“That Scotland Yard man isn’t as much of a rabbit as I thought,” said
Bundle thoughtfully.
“Battle’s a good man,” agreed Anthony.
“You ought to have been in diplomacy,” remarked Bundle. “You don’t part
with much information, do you?”
“I was under the impression that I babbled.”
“Oh! Boy! You’re not eloping with Mademoiselle Brun, by any chance?”
“Not guilty!” said Anthony with fervour.
There was a pause of some minutes during which Bundle caught up and
passed three other cars. Then she asked suddenly:
“How long have you known Virginia?”
“That’s a difficult question to answer,” said Anthony, with perfect
truth. “I haven’t actually met her very often, and yet I seem to have
known her a long time.”
Bundle nodded.
“Virginia’s got brains,” she remarked abruptly. “She’s always talking
nonsense, but she’s got brains all right. She was frightfully good out
in Herzoslovakia, I believe. If Tim Revel had lived he’d have had a
fine career—and mostly owing to Virginia. She worked for him tooth and
nail. She did everything in the world she could for him—and I know
why, too.”
“Because she cared for him?” Anthony sat looking very straight ahead of
him.
“No, because she didn’t. Don’t you see? She didn’t love him—she never
loved him, and so she did everything on earth she could to make up.
That’s Virginia all over. But don’t you make any mistake about it.
Virginia was never in love with Tim Revel.”
“You seem very positive,” said Anthony, turning to look at her.
Bundle’s little hands were clenched on the steering wheel, and her
chin was stuck out in a determined manner.
“I know a thing or two. I was only a kid at the time of her marriage,
but I heard one or two things, and knowing Virginia I can put them
together easily enough. Tim Revel was bowled over by Virginia—he was
Irish, you know, and most attractive, with a genius for expressing
himself well. Virginia was quite young—eighteen. She couldn’t go
anywhere without seeing Tim in a state of picturesque misery, vowing
he’d shoot himself or take to drink if she didn’t marry him. Girls
believe these things—or used to—we’ve advanced a lot in the last
eight years. Virginia was carried away by the feeling she thought she’d
inspired. She married him—and she was an angel to him always. She
wouldn’t have been half as much of an angel if she’d loved him. There’s
a lot of the devil in Virginia. But I can tell you one thing—she
enjoys her freedom. And anyone will have a hard time persuading her to
give it up.”
“I wonder why you tell me all this?” said Anthony slowly.
“It’s interesting to know about people, isn’t it? Some people, that is.”
“I’ve wanted to know,” he acknowledged.
“And you’d never have heard from Virginia. But you can trust me for an
inside tip from the stables. Virginia’s a darling. Even women like her
because she isn’t a bit of a cat. And anyway,” Bundle ended, somewhat
obscurely, “one must be a sport, mustn’t one?”
“Oh, certainly,” Anthony agreed. But he was still puzzled. He had no
idea what had prompted Bundle to give him so much information unasked.
That he was glad of it, he did not deny.
“Here are the trams,” said Bundle, with a sigh. “Now, I suppose, I
shall have to drive carefully.”
“It might be as well,” agreed Anthony.
His ideas and Bundle’s on the subject of careful driving hardly
coincided. Leaving indignant suburbs behind them, they finally emerged
into Oxford Street.
“Not bad going, eh?” said Bundle, glancing at her wrist watch.
Anthony assented fervently.
“Where do you want to be dropped?”
“Anywhere. Which way are you going?”
“Knightsbridge way.”
“All right, drop me at Hyde Park Corner.”
“Good-bye,” said Bundle, as she drew up at the place indicated. “What
about the return journey?”
“I’ll find my own way back, thanks very much.”
“I _have_ scared him,” remarked Bundle.
“I shouldn’t recommend driving with you as a tonic for nervous old
ladies, but personally I’ve enjoyed it. The last time I was in equal
danger was when I was charged by a herd of wild elephants.”
“I think you’re extremely rude,” remarked Bundle. “We’ve not even had
one bump to-day.”
“I’m sorry if you’ve been holding yourself in on my account,” retorted
Anthony.
“I don’t think men are really very brave,” said Bundle.
“That’s a nasty one,” said Anthony. “I retire, humiliated.” Bundle
nodded and drove on. Anthony hailed a passing taxi. “Victoria Station,”
he said to the driver as he got in.
When he got to Victoria he paid off the taxi and inquired for the next
train to Dover. Unfortunately he had just missed one.
Resigning himself to a wait of something over an hour, Anthony paced up
and down, his brows knit. Once or twice he shook his head impatiently.
The journey to Dover was uneventful. Arrived there, Anthony passed
quickly out of the station, and then, as though suddenly remembering,
he turned back again. There was a slight smile on his lips as he asked
to be directed to Hurstmere, Langly Road.
The road in question was a long one, leading right out of the town.
According to the porter’s instructions, Hurstmere was the last house.
Anthony trudged along steadily. The little pucker had reappeared
between his eyes. Nevertheless there was a new elation in his manner,
as always when danger was near at hand.
Hurstmere was, as the porter had said, the last house in Langly Road.
It stood well back, enclosed in its own grounds, which were ragged and
overgrown. The place, Anthony judged, must have been empty for many
years. A large iron gate swung rustily on its hinges, and the name on
the gatepost was half obliterated.
“A lonely spot,” muttered Anthony to himself, “and a good one to
choose.”
He hesitated a minute or two, glanced quickly up and down the
road—which was quite deserted—and then slipped quietly past the
creaking gate into the overgrown drive. He walked up it a little
way, and then stood listening. He was still some distance from the
house. Not a sound could be heard anywhere. Some fast yellowing leaves
detached themselves from one of the trees overhead and fell with a
soft rustling sound that was almost sinister in the stillness. Anthony
started; then smiled.
“Nerves,” he murmured to himself. “Never knew I had such things before.”
He went on up the drive. Presently, as the drive curved, he slipped
into the shrubbery and so continued his way unseen from the house.
Suddenly he stood still, peering out through the leaves. Some distance
away a dog was barking, but it was a sound nearer at hand that had
attracted Anthony’s attention.
His keen hearing had not been mistaken. A man came rapidly round
the corner of the house, a short square, thickset man, foreign in
appearance. He did not pause but walked steadily on, circling the house
and disappearing again.
Anthony nodded to himself.
“Sentry,” he murmured. “They do the thing quite well.”
As soon as he had passed, Anthony went on, diverging to the left, and
so following in the footsteps of the sentry.
His own footsteps were quite noiseless.
The wall of the house was on his right, and presently he came to where
a broad blur of light fell on the gravelled walk. The sound of several
men talking together was clearly audible.
“My God! what double-dyed idiots,” murmured Anthony to himself. “It
would serve them right to be given a fright.”
He stole up to the window, stooping a little so that he should not be
seen. Presently he lifted his head very carefully to the level of the
sill and looked in.
Half a dozen men were sprawling round a table. Four of them were big
thickset men, with high cheek-bones, and eyes set in Magyar slanting
fashion. The other two were rat-like little men with quick gestures.
The language that was being spoken was French, but the four big men
spoke it with uncertainty and a hoarse guttural intonation.
“The Boss?” growled one of these. “When will he be here?”
One of the smaller men shrugged his shoulders.
“Any time now.”
“About time, too,” growled the first man. “I have never seen him, this
Boss of yours, but, oh, what great and glorious work might we not have
accomplished in these days of idle waiting!”
“Fool,” said the other little man bitingly. “Getting nabbed by the
police is all the great and glorious work you and your precious lot
would have been likely to accomplish. A lot of blundering gorillas?”
“Aha!” roared another big thickset fellow. “You insult the Comrades? I
will soon set the sign of the Red Hand round your throat.”
He half rose, glaring ferociously at the Frenchman, but one of his
companions pulled him back again.
“No quarreling,” he grunted. “We’re to work together. From all I heard
this King Victor doesn’t stand for being disobeyed.”
In the darkness, Anthony heard the footsteps of the sentry coming his
round again, and he drew back behind a bush.
“Who’s that?” said one of the men inside.
“Carlo—going his rounds.”
“Oh! What about the prisoner?”
“He’s all right—coming round pretty fast now. He’s recovered well from
the crack on the head we gave him.”
Anthony moved gently away.
“God! what a lot,” he muttered. “They discuss their affairs with an
open window, and that fool Carlo goes his round with the tread of an
elephant, and the eyes of a bat. And to crown all, the Herzoslovakians
and the French are on the point of coming to blows. King Victor’s
headquarters seem to be in a parlous condition. It would amuse me, it
would amuse me very much, to teach them a lesson.”
He stood irresolute for a minute, smiling to himself.
From somewhere above his head came a stifled groan.
Anthony looked up. The groan came again.
Anthony glanced quickly from left to right. Carlo was not due round
again just yet. He grasped the heavy Virginia creeper and climbed
nimbly till he reached the sill of a window. The window was shut, but
with a tool from his pocket he soon succeeded in forcing up the catch.
He paused a minute to listen, then sprang lightly inside the room.
There was a bed in the far corner and on that bed a man was lying, his
figure barely discernible in the gloom.
Anthony went over to the bed, and flashed his pocket torch on the man’s
face. It was a foreign face, pale and emaciated, and the head was
swathed in heavy bandages.
The man was bound hand and foot. He stared up at Anthony like one dazed.
Anthony bent over him, and as he did so he heard a sound behind him and
swung round, his hand travelling to his coat pocket.
But a sharp command arrested him.
“Hands up, sonny. You didn’t expect to see me here, but I happened to
catch the same train as you at Victoria.”
It was Mr. Hiram Fish who was standing in the doorway. He was smiling
and in his hand was a big blue automatic.
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