Part 9 (1/2)
”No one has called, sir, except one or two of the usuals to the tradesmen's entrance, and they were kept outside,” the butler remarked as he relieved the two gentlemen of their hats and canes.
At Forsyth's request they were shown into the smoking-room-a cozy den, with only one window overlooking Piccadilly, to which the General immediately walked. His gaze roved over the crowded thoroughfare, comprehending pedestrians and pa.s.sing vehicles in one swift scrutiny, and, apparently satisfied, he turned away just as Sybil entered, looking as fresh and sprightly as though she had slept the clock round. The General greeted her in the curt manner he affected to all women impartially, but an extra pressure of her hand may have had reference to her vigilant gallantry.
”His Grace is sulking,” she said, with a smile. ”At least, he refuses to leave his room until he has seen you, General Sadgrove. I tapped at his door and told him you were here, but he said that if you want to see him you had better go upstairs. Very rude of him, isn't it?”
”Very sensible,” replied the General. ”I would prefer to see him alone, if you will be so good as to escort me, Miss Hanbury. Alec,” he added, ”while I am gone just sit on this ottoman behind the window-curtain and keep your eye on that apple-woman under the railings of the Green Park.
When I come back, be prepared to tell me exactly what she has done and how many customers she has had.”
Forsyth nodded, and the General went away with Sybil, who conducted him up the grand staircase and left him at the door of the Duke's room. It was characteristic of the man that, having heard all there was to hear of her proceedings from his nephew, he forbore to waste words on what had occurred, but dismissed her with an injunction.
”Now run away and help Alec, but don't let the apple-woman know that those sharp eyes are observing her,” he said, unbending so far as to give her a playful push.
His knock and mention of his name was followed by the sound of footsteps as the occupant of the room remembered that he had turned the key and hastened to admit the visitor. Beaumanoir was fully dressed, and had just finished breakfast.
”Don't think me a coward for locking the door, General,” he said, as he shook hands. ”This is a pretty bad gang that I am dodging.”
The General's comment was to turn and re-lock the door himself, after a critical glance at the sawn panel. ”I have spent my life in breaking up bad gangs,” he said, when he had taken the chair indicated. ”I am a bit rusty with disuse, but I should very much like to try conclusions with this one. From what I hear, they must be worthy of anyone's steel.”
Beaumanoir indulged in a careworn smile.
”Three attempts in forty-eight hours speaks to their zeal, at any rate,”
he replied. ”But seriously, General, you start badly handicapped,” he went on. ”I don't even know that I want them broken up, as you call it, for there must be no publicity. I can give you no clues nor answer any questions. All I ask of your great experience is how to thwart a determined hankering after my poor life-a hankering which may possibly cease if I survive for another week.”
”You positively decline to give me any a.s.sistance?”
”Positively; the honor of my house forbids it.”
The General tried to look pensive-a difficult matter to a gentleman of iron visage and bushy eyebrows.
”I am not going to ask questions,” he said almost plaintively, without mentioning that there were some he had no need to ask and others which he fully intended to answer himself. ”I am here to give advice, and it is to get out of London into the open, so that your friends can look after you. Professors of crime find their art more difficult in the country, where every gossiping woman in the village street is a possible witness. I want your Grace to go down to Prior's Tarrant, and allow me the honor of accompanying you as a guest.”
The suggestion was met by a blank negative, and caused the Duke to rise and pace the room in more agitation than he had yet shown.
”Why, the very place is hateful to me since last Sunday night,” he exclaimed. ”You would realize that yourself, General, if you had been introduced to those silent fumes stealing down the chimney. I was thinking of going to some hotel by the sea when Forsyth and Sibyl induced me to remain here for the night, with such lively consequences.
Come with me as my guest anywhere else, but not to Prior's Tarrant.”
”Nevertheless, I should feel surer of your safety there than anywhere, and I do not speak without reason,” replied the General, with a metallic snap in his voice. ”I should wish at least to be accorded the privilege of finis.h.i.+ng my proposition.”
Beaumanoir promptly apologized very gracefully for his discourteous interruption, excusing it on the score of the strain on his nerves. He would be delighted to listen to any proposals, but nothing would shake his determination not to go back to Prior's Tarrant.
”My dear sir, the tangled woodland of the park there is the ideal spot for a lurking a.s.sa.s.sin. Mediaeval architecture provided the house with nooks and corners which it would tax even your foresight to patrol,” he insisted.
”But,” said the General, ”there is safety in numbers; and I was going to propose-rather coolly, perhaps-that you should have a house-party there.
If I might bring Mrs. Sadgrove, and Alec and Sybil Hanbury would also give us their company, it would lend color to my own presence. The last two-named, as you have occasion to know, form a valuable body-guard.”
The Duke stared at his visitor with something like horrified amazement.
”You forget, General, in your kind eagerness to serve me, that you have guests staying in your own house whom you cannot desert,” he said, wondering how even an old man with his years behind him could suffer such lapse of memory when Leonie Sherman was one of the guests. He was almost angry that his visitor, being thus reminded, did not instantly abase himself.