The Doctor's was quick and hard:
"Never mind that--it doesn't matter. Do you happen to know where Mr.
Reddy is?"
My heart gave a big jump--he hadn't caught them! They'd got away and
been married!
"Yes, sir, Mr. Reddy's here."
There was just a minute's pause before the Doctor answered. In that
minute all sorts of ideas went flashing through my head the way they say
you see things before you drown. Then came the Doctor's voice with a
curious sort of quietness in it.
"_There_, at Firehill?"
"Yes, sir. Can I take any message? Mr. Reddy was out very late last
night and isn't up yet."
The Doctor answered that very cordially, all the hurry and hardness
gone.
"Oh, that's all right. I'll not disturb him. No, I won't bother with a
message. I'll call up later. Thanks very much. Good-bye."
I dropped back in my chair, tapping with a pencil on the corner of the
drawer and looking sideways at the Doctor as he came out of the booth.
He had a queer look, his eyes keen and bright, and there was some color
in his face. The strange man turned round, and the Doctor gave him a
glance sharp as a razor, but all he said was: "Come on, Mills," and they
went out and mounted into the car.
When the door banged on them I drew a deep breath and flattened out
against the chair back. They _hadn't_ eloped!
Gee, it was a relief! Not because of myself. Honest to God, that's
straight. I knew I couldn't have him any more than I could have had the
Kohinoor diamond. It was because I _knew_--deep down where you feel the
truth--that Sylvia Hesketh wasn't the girl for him to marry.
That was about half-past eight. It was after ten when a message came for
Mapleshade that made the world turn upside down and left me white and
sick. It was from the Coroner and said that Sylvia Hesketh had been
found that morning on the turnpike, murdered.
Poor Mrs. Fowler took it!
Anne Hennessey told me afterward that she heard her scream on the other
side of the house. I heard it, too, and it raised _my_ hair--and then a
lot of words coming thin and shrill along the wire. "Sylvia, my
daughter--dead--murdered?" It was awful, I hate to think of it.
Nora and Anne ran at the sound and found Mrs. Fowler all wild and
screaming, with the receiver hanging down. I could hear them, a babble
of tiny little voices as if I had a line on some part of Purgatory where
the spirits were crying and wailing.
Suddenly it stopped--somebody had hung up. I waited, shaking there like
a leaf and feeling like I'd a blow in the stomach. Then Mapleshade
called and I heard Anne's voice, distinct but broken as if she'd been
running.
"Molly, is that you? Do you by any chance know if the Doctor's in the
village?"
"He was here a little while ago with a man calling up Firehill. Anne, I
heard--it can't be true."
"Oh, it is--it is--I can't talk now. I've _got_ to find him. Give me
Firehill. He may have gone there. Quick, for God's sake!"