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Updated: May 31, 2025
"You stand here gossiping with that man loose in the house?" exclaimed Bellward vehemently, "why the next thing we know the fellow will escape us again!" "Oh, no, he won't" retorted the other. "Every window on the ground floor is barred... this is a home for neurasthenics, you know, and that is sometimes a polite word for a lunatic, my friend... and the doors, both front and back are locked.
But Bellward had grasped the dancer by the two arms and forced her up the stairs in front of him. Nur-el-Din seemed too overcome with terror to utter a sound. "Oh, don't be so rough with her, Major Okewood!" entreated Barbara, "you'll hurt her!" She had her back turned to Strangwise so she missed the very remarkable change that came over his features at her words.
"You don't leave this room until we know who you are!" And he covered him with his pistol. "Fool!" exclaimed Bellward who had stopped on the threshold of the secret door, "do you want to trap the lot of us! Tell him, Minna," he said to Mrs. Malplaquet, "and for Heaven's sake, let us be gone!" Mrs. Malplaquet stood up.
But just as Desmond passed the head of the main staircase he heard the sound of voices. He glanced cautiously down the well of the stairs and saw Strangwise and Bellward talking together. Bellward was on the stairs while Strangwise stood in the corridor. "It's our last chance," Strangwise was saying. "No, no," Bellward replied heatedly, "I tell you it is madness. We must not delay a minute.
Then Desmond heard the door burst open, there was the deafening report of a pistol, followed by another, and Bellward crashed forward on his knees with a sobbing grunt. As Desmond had his back to the door he could see nothing of what was taking place, but some kind of violent struggle was going on; for he heard the smash of glass as a piece of furniture was upset.
"The lady has disappeared from London under rather suspicious circumstances;" Mortimer said, letting his grotesque eyes rest for a moment on Desmond's face, "to be quite frank with you, my dear fellow, she has been indiscreet, and the police are after her." "You don't say!" cried Desmond. "Indeed, it is a fact," replied the other, "I wish she would take you as her model, my dear Bellward.
"To secure our young friend here," answered Bellward with a glance at Barbara. Mrs. Malplaquet made a little grimace to bid him to be prudent in what he said before the girl. "Bah!" the man laughed, "you understand nothing of what we are saying, do you?" he said, addressing Barbara. The girl moved uneasily. "I understand nothing of what you are saying," she replied in a strained voice.
Bellward could come and go much as he pleased on his motor-cycle. Were he stopped, he always had the excuse ready that he was going to or returning from the station. The few petrol cans that Desmond had seen openly displayed in the shed without seemed to show that Bellward received a small quantity of spirit from the Petrol Board to take him to and from the railway.
The cache, so elaborately concealed, however, pointed to long journeys. Did Bellward undertake these trips to fetch news or to transmit it? And who was his confederate? Whom did he go to meet? Not Mortimer; for he had only, corresponded with Bellward. Nor was it Nur-el-Din; for she had never met Bellward, either. Who was it, then? "No luck, Mr.
Perhaps it would interest you to hear something about this, our latest German method for extracting accurate information from reluctant or untruthful witnesses. Bellward, perhaps you would enlighten him." Bellward smiled grimly. "It is a blend," he explained glibly, "of that extreme form of cross-examination which the Americans call 'the third degree' and hypnotic treatment.
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