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Updated: June 20, 2025
The three passed out into the hall. Mr. and Mrs. Bates immediately showed scared faces at the kitchen door. "It's all right, Bates," said Theydon airily. "I'm not a prisoner. I'll be with you again in a few minutes." But Bates was profoundly disturbed. "Wot beats me," he said to his wife when they were alone, "is why that little ferret wanted to see the guv'nor's clothes.
The monosyllable, sharp and insistent, was disconcerting as the unexpected crack of a whip, but Theydon answered valiantly: "Because of the monstrous absurdities with which Fate has plagued me during the past two days, I appeal now for outspokenness, so I set an example.
"Oh, dash it all, what business is it of mine, anyhow?" growled Theydon, and he laughed sourly as he sat down to write a letter which Bates could take to the post, thus himself practicing a slight deceit intended solely to account for the deferred bringing of the tray.
Theydon, can that soldier-servant of yours make coffee?" "His wife can," said Theydon. "Will you be good enough, then, to set her to work? Thus far, since the sun rose, I have stayed the pangs of hunger with an apple and a glass of water." By this time, Theydon had thoroughly revised his first estimate of the diminutive detective.
That is I heard of you last night from the Scotland Yard people." She sat down at once, but seemed to be at a loss for words. Her lips trembled, and Theydon thought she was going to cry. "Have you traveled from Oxford this morning?" he said, simulating a courteous nonchalance he was far from feeling. "If so, you must have started from home at an ungodly hour.
"We have no reason on earth to doubt the truth of anything you have said, or may say, with regard to this inquiry. The car is not ours. This is the first we have heard of it. We accepted your word, Mr. Theydon, that you were dining with a friend. Perhaps you will tell us now what his name is and where he lives." Theydon hesitated the fraction of a second.
"The Scotland Yard men took an unusual step in admitting you to their conclave. They must have had some motive. Tell me what they said, their very words, if you can recall them." Theydon was uncomfortably aware of a strange compulsion to obey.
Glancing at his watch, he rose when Theydon's revelations came to an end. "I'll just go and ring up the Yard," he said. "There may be news. When Furneaux starts off in full cry it is a wary fox that escapes him. I only wish you and I had traveled from Victoria in company, Mr. Theydon; Wong Li Fu would now have been in custody. However, we'll get him.
"Are we justified in taking the law into our own hands?" "Is any one justified in tryin' to get in here an' cut our throats while we're asleep, sir?" Theydon weighed the pros and cons of this thesis very carefully. He dreaded the possibility of taking a human life, even in self-defense. Yet against the wretches who had strangled Edith Lester, and coolly prepared to leave Mrs.
"Give it to me. I must be off. The hour is long past midnight and I have a busy day before me tomorrow." Back in the seclusion of his own rooms, Theydon debated the question whether or not he should endeavor to communicate with Forbes again that night. Somehow it seemed to him that Forbes would be most concerned at hearing of the gray car. And what of the ivory skull? Suppose he knew of that!
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