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"Did Bulford commit suicide?" he asked. "Where is the angel?" "I left her in the drawing-room with Mrs. Rennett and Miss Beale." "Mrs. Meredith," corrected Jack quietly. "This complicates matters," said Rennett, "but I think we can get out of our share of the trouble, though it is going to look a little black." They found the three women in the drawing-room.
"That 'or' won't come off, Jack. He'll get a life sentence as sure as 'eggs is eggs. I'd go a long way to help Jimmy; I'd risk my practice and my name." Jack Glover looked at his partner in astonishment. "You old sportsman!" he said admiringly. "I didn't know you were so fond of Jimmy?" Mr. Rennett got up and began pulling on his gloves.
Meredith came into this house at a quarter to eight this morning, and surrendered himself to my partner. At eight o'clock exactly, as you are well aware, Mr. Rennett telephoned to Scotland Yard to say that Mr. Meredith was here. During the period of his waiting he was married." "Did a parson happen to be staying here, sir?" asked the police officer sarcastically.
Lydia, however, was calmness itself, as she walked into the drawing-room ahead of her hostess. There were four men. Glover and Rennett she knew. A third man wearing a clerical collar she guessed was the officiating priest, and all her attention was concentrated upon the fourth. He was a gaunt, unshaven man, his hair cut short, his face and figure wasted, so that the clothes he wore hung on him.
There followed a description of the wanted man. Jack turned to another part of the paper, and dismissed the paragraph from his mind. His partner, however, was to bring the matter up at lunch. Norwood Asylum was near Dulwich, and Mr. Rennett was pardonably concerned. "The womenfolk at my house are scared to death," he said at lunch. "They won't go out at night, and they keep all the doors locked.
He was good-looking too, Lydia noticed with feminine inconsequence, and there was something in his eyes that inspired trust. He nodded with a smile to Mrs. Rennett, then turned to the girl. "Now Miss Beale, I don't know whether I ought to explain or whether my learned and distinguished friend prefers to save me the trouble." "Not me," said the elder man hastily.
I don't think he meant any harm they never take unnecessary risks, and all they wanted was to spirit you away for the night. How they came to know that we had chosen you baffles me," he said. "Can you advance any theory, Rennett?" "Chosen me?" repeated the startled girl. "Really, I feel I'm entitled to some explanation, and if you don't mind, I would like you to take me back to my office.
"Has he appendicitis?" asked the other in surprise. "He can fake it," said Jack calmly. "It's the easiest thing in the world to fake." Rennett looked at the other under his heavy eyebrows. "You're thinking of the 'or'?" he challenged, and Jack nodded. "It can be done if he's alive," said Rennett after a pause.
That afternoon Mordon, the chauffeur, motored into Nice, and by nine o'clock that night an aeroplane deposited him in Paris. He was in London the following morning, a bearer of an urgent letter to Mr. Rennett, the lawyer, which, however, he did not present in person.
That was our turning point. Your father God rest him was never tired of talking about it. I wonder he never told you." "I think he did," said Jack thoughtfully. "And you really would go a long way Rennett I mean, to help Jim Meredith?" "All the way," said old Rennett shortly. Jack Glover began whistling a long lugubrious tune. "I'm seeing the old boy to-morrow," he said.
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