He handed him the same little article he had taken out the night before, and Ned"s eye gleamed.
"What!" said he. "That kind of gun once more? This reminds me of old times!"
"It"s a mere precaution," said the other. "Don"t count on using it!
Remember, you"re going to visit the most respectable citizen of the town--perhaps on a wild goose errand."
"I guess not," said Ned quietly.
"We daren"t a.s.sume anything. I don"t want to make a fool of myself, and no more do you, I take it."
"I see," said Ned, with a nod. "Well, I"ll keep him in his chair for you."
"That"s it."
They were walking quickly through the silent town under the windy night sky. It was a dark boisterous evening, not inviting for strollers, and they scarcely pa.s.sed a soul till they were in the quiet road where the villa stood. There, from the shadows of a gateway, two figures moved out to meet them, and Cromarty recognised Superintendent Sutherland and one of his constables. The two saluted in silence and fell in behind. They each carried, he noticed, something long-shaped wrapped up loosely in sacking.
"What have they got there?" he asked.
"Prosaic instruments," smiled Carrington. "I won"t tell you more for fear the gamble doesn"t come off."
"Like the sensation before one proposes, I suppose," said Ned. "Well, going by that, the omens ought to be all right."
They turned in through Simon"s gates and then the four stopped.
"We part here," whispered Carrington. "Good luck!"
"Same to you," said Ned briefly, and strode up the drive.
As he came out into the gravel sweep before the house, he looked hard into the darkness of the garden, but beyond the tossing shapes of trees, there was not a sign of movement.
"Mr. Rattar in?" he enquired. "Sitting in the library I suppose? Take me right to him. Cromarty"s my name."
"Mr. Cromarty to see you, sir," announced Mary, and she was startled to see the master"s sudden turn in his chair and the look upon his face.
"Whether he was feared or whether he was angered, I canna rightly say,"
she told cook, "but anyway he looked fair mad like!"
"Good evening," said Ned.
His voice was restrained and dry, and as he spoke he strode across the room and seated himself deliberately in the arm chair on the side of the fire opposite to the lawyer.
Simon had banished that first look which Mary saw, but there remained in his eyes something more than their usual cold stare. Each day since Carrington came seemed to have aged his face and changed it for the worse: a haggard, ugly, malicious face it seemed to his visitor looking hard at it to-night. His only greeting was a briefer grunt than ordinary.
"I daresay you can guess what"s brought me here," said Ned.
The lawyer rapped out his first words jerkily.
"No. I can"t."
"Try three guesses," suggested his visitor. "Come now, number one----?"
For a moment Simon was silent, but to-night he could not hide the working of that face which usually hid his thoughts so effectually. It was plain he hesitated what line to take.
"You have seen Miss Farmond, I hear," he said.
"You"re on the scent," said his visitor encouragingly. "Have another go."
"You believe her story."
"I do."
"It"s false."
Ned stared at him very hard and then he spoke deliberately.
"I"m wondering," said he.
"Wondering what?" asked Simon.
"Whether a horse whip or the toe of a shooting boot is the best cure for your complaint."
The lawyer shrank back into his chair.
"Do you threaten me?" he jerked out. "Be careful!"
"If I threatened you I"d certainly do what I threatened," said Ned. "So far I"m only wondering. Where did you learn to lie, Mr. Rattar?"
The lawyer made no answer at all. His mind seemed concentrated on guessing the other"s probable actions.
"Out with it, man! I"ve met some derned good liars in my time, but you beat the lot. I"m anxious to know where you learned the trick, that"s all."
"Why do you believe her more than me?" asked Simon.
"Because you"ve been found out lying before. That was a pretty stiff one about your engaging Carrington, wasn"t it?"
Simon was quite unable to control his violent start, and his face turned whiter.
"I--I didn"t say I did," he stammered.
"Well," said Ned, "I admit I wasn"t there to hear you, but I know Carrington made you put your foot fairly in it just by way of helping him to size you up, and he got your size right enough too."
"Then----" began Simon, and stopped and changed it into: "What does Carrington suspect--er--accuse me of?"
Ned stared at him for several seconds without speaking, and this procedure seemed to disconcert the lawyer more than anything had done yet.
"What--what does Carrington mean?" he repeated.
"He means you"ve lied, and he believes Miss Farmond, and he believes Sir Malcolm, and he believes me, and he puts you down as a pretty bad egg.