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"It was spoken by Sir Charles a few moments before he died." Nicol Brinn's drooping lids flickered rapidly. "Before he died! Then Sir Charles Abingdon is dead! When did he die?" "He died to-night and the last words that he uttered were 'Fire-Tongue' " He paused, never for a moment removing that fixed gaze from the other's face. "Go on," prompted Mr. Brinn. "And 'Nicol Brinn."
As a result, I must use another gate, which opened into a mountain path, but which was always guarded. At first, on hearing this, I gave myself up for lost, but Naida had a plan. "Removing a bangle which she always wore, she showed me the secret mark of Fire-Tongue branded upon the creamy skin. "'I will put this mark upon your arm, she said. 'In no other way can you escape.
In the first place, he clearly went in fear of some such death. It was because of this that he consulted me. What was the origin of his fear? Something associated with the term Fire-Tongue. So much is clear from Sir Charles's dying words, and his questioning Nicol Brinn on the point some weeks earlier. "He was afraid, then, of something or someone linked in his mind with the word Fire-Tongue.
As it passed beneath him he stifled an exclamation of triumph. Vaguely, nebulously, the secret of this dread thing Fire-Tongue, which had uplifted its head in England, appeared before his mind's eye. It was only necessary for him to assure himself that the latest visitor had been admitted to the house before the next move became possible.
"He was in the service of some gentleman in the country; that's all I know about him." "Did Polly leave no address to which letters were to be forwarded?" "No; she said she would write." "One other point," said Wessex, and he looked hard into the woman's face: "What do you know about Fire-Tongue?" He was answered by a stare of blank stupidity. "You heard me?"
He had carefully timed the drive to the unknown abode of Fire-Tongue, and unless it had been prolonged, the more completely to deceive him, he had determined that the house lay not more than twenty miles from Piccadilly.
He experienced the utmost difficulty in adopting a judicial attitude toward his beautiful visitor. Proximity increased his mental confusion. Therefore he stood on the opposite side of the office ere beginning to question her. "In the first place, Miss Abingdon," he said, speaking very deliberately, "do you attach any particular significance to the term 'Fire-Tongue'?"
I wondered very much on my way north why I was not molested, for I did not fail to see that the death of the man in Nagpur was connected with the fact that he had divulged to me some of the secrets of the religion of Fire-Tongue. Indeed, it was from him that I first learned the name of the high priest of the cult of Fire. Why I was not molested I learned later.
Nicol Brinn glanced rapidly about his own luxurious room in an oddly apprehensive manner. "I said that," he declared, "and I meant it." "Then I can only suppose," resumed Harley, deliberately, "that the cause of your fear lies in the term, 'Fire-Tongue'?" Brinn again rested his chin in his hand, staring fixedly into the grate.
"He accused him of having set spies upon his daughter's movements an accusation which was true and forbade him to see her again. From that hour the fate of Sir Charles was sealed. What he knew, the world must never know. He had recorded, in a private paper, all that he had learned. This paper was stolen from his bureau and its contents led to my being summoned to the house of Fire-Tongue!
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