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Updated: May 29, 2025
The keys are here!" Desmond heard a jingle as Strangwise slapped his pocket. "All the same," the latter went on, "it is as well to be prepared for a sudden change of quarters. That's why I want you to finish off the girl at once. Come along, we'll start now..." "No, no!" declared Bellward. "I'm far too upset. You seem to think you can turn me on and off like you do the gas!"
Mightn't they have been planted on her in order to get her arrested to draw the suspicion away from the real criminal, yourself?" Strangwise laughed a low, mellow laugh. "You're devilish hard to convince," he remarked. "Perhaps you'll change your mind about it when I tell you that Nur-el-Din was sentenced to death by a general court-martial yesterday afternoon."
"But do you believe then, that Nur-el-Din murdered-old Mackwayte? My dear Chief, the idea is preposterous..." The Chief rose from his chair with a sigh. "Nothing is preposterous in our work, Okewood," he replied. "But it's 3.25, and my French colleague hates to be kept waiting." "I thought you were seeing Strangwise, at two?" asked Desmond.
I am inclined to believe, too, that Strangwise, before going over to the Mill House last night, carried off Miss Mackwayte somewhere with the aid of Rass and Marie, who were evidently his accomplices, in order to find out from her where the jewel is concealed..." "But Miss Mackwayte cannot know what has become of it," objected Desmond.
"I'll do it," said the woman promptly, "if you'll call her down!" Strangwise went to the other door of the tap-room and called: "Marie!" There was a step outside and the maid came in, pale and trembling. "Your mistress wants you; she is downstairs in the cellar," he said pleasantly. Marie hesitated an instant and surveyed the group. "Non, non," she said nervously, "je n'veux pas descendre!"
Whether Bellward, who appeared bent only on getting away from the house without delay, examined the balcony or not, Desmond did not know; but after the agony of suspense had endured for what seemed to him an hour, he heard Strangwise say: "It's no good, Bellward! I'm not satisfied! And until I am satisfied that Okewood is not here, I don't leave this house. And that's that!"
With a sigh of relief Desmond, as quietly as possible, manoeuvred the dressing-table back into place and then jerked the chair across the carpet to the position where Strangwise and Bellward had left him in the middle of the floor: It was here that the two men found him, apparently asleep, when they came up half-an-hour later. They carried him down to the red lacquer room again.
The upper part of the house was shrouded in darkness, but a broad beam of light from a half-open door and a tall window on the ground floor cleft the pall of fog. The window showed a snug little bar with Strangwise standing by the counter, a glass in his hand. As Desmond watched him, he heard a muffled scream from somewhere within the house.
He remembered how she had told him of seeing Nur-el-Din's face in the mirror as the dancer was talking to Strangwise that night at the Palaceum, and of the look of terror in the girl's eyes.
Strangwise turned to Bellward. "Can Minna and the girl go to Campden Hill alone?" he asked. "Or will the girl try and break away, do you think?" Bellward held up his hand to enjoin silence. "You will go along with Mrs. Malplaquet," he said to Barbara in his low purring voice, "you will stay with her until I come. You understand?" "I will go with Mrs.
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