ON THE TRAIL
At the same moment Williams came softly in. There was a grin of
satisfaction on his face.
"The brute is fast asleep," he said. "I've just been in his room. He left
the lamp burning, and there is a lump on the side of his head as big as
an ostrich egg. But he didn't mean to go to sleep; he hasn't taken any of
his clothes off. On the whole, sir, wouldn't it be better for you to wake
our man up and get him away?"
David was of the same opinion. Van Sneck was lying on the bed looking
vacantly about him. He seemed older and more worn, perhaps, because his
beard and moustache were growing ragged and dirty on his face. He pressed
his hand to his head in a confused kind of way.
"I tell you I can't find it," he said; "the thing slipped out of my
hand--a small thing like that easily might. What's the good of making a
fuss about a ring not worth £20? Search my pockets if you like. What a
murderous-looking dog you are when you're out of temper!"
All this in a vague, rambling way, in a slightly foreign accent. David
touched him on the shoulder.
"Won't you come back with me to Brighton?" he said.
"Certainly," was the ready response; "you look a good sort of chap. I'll
go anywhere you please. Not that I've got a penny of money left. What a
spree it has been. Who are you?"
"My name is Steel. I am David Steel, the novelist."
A peculiarly cunning look came over Van Sneck's face.
"I got your letter," he said. "And I came. It was after I had had that
row with Henson. Henson is a bigger scoundrel than I am, though you may
not think it."
"I accept your statement implicitly," David said, drily.
"Well, he is. And I got your letter. And I called.... And you nearly
killed me. And I dropped it down in the corner of the conservatory."
"Dropped what?" David asked, sharply.
"Nothing," said Van Sneck. "What do you mean by talking about dropping
things. I never dropped anything in my life. I make others do that, eh,
eh! But I can't remember anything. It just comes back to me, and then
there is a wheel goes round in my head.... Who are you?"
David gave up the matter as hopeless. This was emphatically a case
for Bell. Once let him get Van Sneck back to Brighton and Bell could
do the rest.
"We'd better go," he said to Enid. "We are merely wasting time here."
"I suppose so," Enid said, thoughtfully. "All the same, I should greatly
like to know what it is that our friend Van Sneck dropped."
It was a long and tedious journey back to Brighton again, for the patient
seemed to tire easily, and he evinced a marked predilection for sitting
by the roadside and singing. It was very late before David reached his
house. Bell beamed his satisfaction. Van Sneck, with a half-gleam of
recognition of his surroundings, and with a statement that he had been
there before, lapsed into silence. Bell produced a small phial in a
chemist's wrapper and poured the contents into a glass. With a curt
command to drink he passed the glass over to Van Sneck.
The latter drank the small dose, and Bell carried him more or less to a
ground-floor bedroom behind the dining-room. There he speedily undressed
his patient and got him into bed. Van Sneck was practically fast asleep
before his head had touched the pillow.
"I went out and got that dose with a view to eventualities," Bell
explained. "I know pretty well what is the matter with Van Sneck, and I
propose to operate upon him, with the help of Heritage. I've put him in
my bed and locked the door. I shall sleep in the big armchair."
David flung himself into a big deck lounge and lighted a cigarette.
"My word, that has been a bit of a business," he said. "Pour me out a
little whisky in one of the long glasses and fill it up with soda....
Oh, that's better. I never felt so thirsty in my life. I got Van Sneck
away without Henson having the slightest suspicion that he was there,
and I had the satisfaction of giving Henson a smashing blow without his
seeing me."
"Sounds like conjuring," Bell said, behind his cigar. "Explain yourself."
David went carefully into details. He told the story of Prince Rupert's
ring to a listener who followed him with the most flattering attention.
"Of course, all this is new to me," Bell said, presently, "though I knew
the family well up to that time. Depend upon it, Enid is right. Henson
has got the ring. But how fortunately everything seems to have turned out
for the scoundrel."
"If a man likes to be an unscrupulous blackguard he can make use of all
events," David said. "But even Henson is not quite so clever as we take
him to be. He has found out the trick we played upon him over Chris
Henson, but he hasn't the faintest idea that all this time he has been
living under the same roof at Littimer."
"The girl is a wonderful actress," Bell replied. "I only guessed who she
was. If I hadn't known as much as I do she would have deceived me. But
Henson has shot his bolt. After we have operated upon Van Sneck we shall
be pretty near the truth. It is a great pull to have him in the house."
"And a nasty thing for Henson--"
"Who will find out before to-morrow is over. I feel pretty sure that this
house is watched carefully. Any firm of private detectives would do that,
and they need be told nothing either. I know that I was followed when I
went to the chemist's to fetch that dose for our friend yonder. Still, it
is a sign that Henson is getting frightened."
"Why do you bring Heritage into this matter?" David asked.
"Well, for a variety of reasons. First of all, Heritage is an old
friend of mine, and I take a great interest in his case. I am going to
give him a chance to recover his lost confidence, and he is a splendid
operator. Besides, I want to know why Henson has gone out of his way to
be so kind to Heritage. And, finally, Heritage was the family doctor of
the Carfax people you just mentioned before he went to practise in
London. Let me once get Heritage round again, and I shall be greatly
disappointed if he does not give us a good deal of valuable information
regarding Reginald Henson."
"And Cross. What about him?"
"Oh, Cross will do as I ask him. Without egotism, he knows that the case
is perfectly safe in my hands. And if we care to look after Van Sneck,
why, there will be one the less burden in the hospital. What a funny
business it is! Van Sneck gets nearly done to death under this roof, and
he comes back here to be cured again."
David yawned sleepily as he rose.
"Well, I've had enough of it for to-night," he said. "I'm dog-tried, and
I must confess to feeling sick of the Hensons and Littimers, and all
their works."
"Including their friend, Miss Ruth Gates?" Bell said, slily. "Still, they
have made pretty good use of you, and I expect you will be glad to get
back to your work again. At the same time, you need not trouble your head
for plots for many a day."
David admitted that the situation had its compensations, and went off to
bed. Bell met him the next day as fresh as if he had had a full night's
rest, and vouchsafed the information that the patient was as well as
possible. He was cold and no longer feverish.
"In fact, he is ready for the operation at any time," he said. "I shall
get Heritage here to dinner, and we shall operate afterwards with
electric light. It will be a good steadier for Heritage's nerves, and
the electric light is the best light of all for this business. If you
have got a few yards of spare flex from your reading-lamp I'll rig the
thing up without troubling your electrician. I can attach it to your
study lamp."
"I've got what you want," David said. "Now come in to breakfast."
There was a pile of letters on the table, and on the top a telegram. It
was a long message, and Bell watched Steel's face curiously.
"From Littimer Castle," he suggested. "Am I right?"
"As usual," David cried. "My little scheme over that diamond star has
worked magnificently. Miss Chris tells me that she has--by Jove, Bell,
just listen--she has solved the problem of the cigar-case; she has found
out the whole thing. She wants me to meet her in London to-morrow, when
she will tell me everything."