"Certainly," was the ready response; "you look a good sort of chap. I"ll go anywhere you please. Not that I"ve got a penny of money left. What a spree it has been. Who are you?"
"My name is Steel. I am David Steel, the novelist."
A peculiarly cunning look came over Van Sneck"s face.
"I got your letter," he said. "And I came. It was after I had had that row with Henson. Henson is a bigger scoundrel than I am, though you may not think it."
"I accept your statement implicitly," David said, drily.
"Well, he is. And I got your letter. And I called.... And you nearly killed me. And I dropped it down in the corner of the conservatory."
"Dropped what?" David asked, sharply.
"Nothing," said Van Sneck. "What do you mean by talking about dropping things. I never dropped anything in my life. I make others do that, eh, eh! But I can"t remember anything. It just comes back to me, and then there is a wheel goes round in my head.... Who are you?"
David gave up the matter as hopeless. This was emphatically a case for Bell. Once let him get Van Sneck back to Brighton and Bell could do the rest.
"We"d better go," he said to Enid. "We are merely wasting time here."
"I suppose so," Enid said, thoughtfully. "All the same, I should greatly like to know what it is that our friend Van Sneck dropped."
It was a long and tedious journey back to Brighton again, for the patient seemed to tire easily, and he evinced a marked predilection for sitting by the roadside and singing. It was very late before David reached his house. Bell beamed his satisfaction. Van Sneck, with a half-gleam of recognition of his surroundings, and with a statement that he had been there before, lapsed into silence. Bell produced a small phial in a chemist"s wrapper and poured the contents into a gla.s.s. With a curt command to drink he pa.s.sed the gla.s.s over to Van Sneck.
The latter drank the small dose, and Bell carried him more or less to a ground-floor bedroom behind the dining-room. There he speedily undressed his patient and got him into bed. Van Sneck was practically fast asleep before his head had touched the pillow.
"I went out and got that dose with a view to eventualities," Bell explained. "I know pretty well what is the matter with Van Sneck, and I propose to operate upon him, with the help of Heritage. I"ve put him in my bed and locked the door. I shall sleep in the big armchair."
David flung himself into a big deck lounge and lighted a cigarette.
"My word, that has been a bit of a business," he said. "Pour me out a little whisky in one of the long gla.s.ses and fill it up with soda....
Oh, that"s better. I never felt so thirsty in my life. I got Van Sneck away without Henson having the slightest suspicion that he was there, and I had the satisfaction of giving Henson a smashing blow without his seeing me."
"Sounds like conjuring," Bell said, behind his cigar. "Explain yourself."
David went carefully into details. He told the story of Prince Rupert"s ring to a listener who followed him with the most flattering attention.
"Of course, all this is new to me," Bell said, presently, "though I knew the family well up to that time. Depend upon it, Enid is right. Henson has got the ring. But how fortunately everything seems to have turned out for the scoundrel."
"If a man likes to be an unscrupulous blackguard he can make use of all events," David said. "But even Henson is not quite so clever as we take him to be. He has found out the trick we played upon him over Chris Henson, but he hasn"t the faintest idea that all this time he has been living under the same roof at Littimer."
"The girl is a wonderful actress," Bell replied. "I only guessed who she was. If I hadn"t known as much as I do she would have deceived me. But Henson has shot his bolt. After we have operated upon Van Sneck we shall be pretty near the truth. It is a great pull to have him in the house."
"And a nasty thing for Henson--"
"Who will find out before to-morrow is over. I feel pretty sure that this house is watched carefully. Any firm of private detectives would do that, and they need be told nothing either. I know that I was followed when I went to the chemist"s to fetch that dose for our friend yonder. Still, it is a sign that Henson is getting frightened."
"Why do you bring Heritage into this matter?" David asked.
"Well, for a variety of reasons. First of all, Heritage is an old friend of mine, and I take a great interest in his case. I am going to give him a chance to recover his lost confidence, and he is a splendid operator. Besides, I want to know why Henson has gone out of his way to be so kind to Heritage. And, finally, Heritage was the family doctor of the Carfax people you just mentioned before he went to practise in London. Let me once get Heritage round again, and I shall be greatly disappointed if he does not give us a good deal of valuable information regarding Reginald Henson."
"And Cross. What about him?"
"Oh, Cross will do as I ask him. Without egotism, he knows that the case is perfectly safe in my hands. And if we care to look after Van Sneck, why, there will be one the less burden in the hospital. What a funny business it is! Van Sneck gets nearly done to death under this roof, and he comes back here to be cured again."
David yawned sleepily as he rose.
"Well, I"ve had enough of it for to-night," he said. "I"m dog-tried, and I must confess to feeling sick of the Hensons and Littimers, and all their works."
"Including their friend, Miss Ruth Gates?" Bell said, slily. "Still, they have made pretty good use of you, and I expect you will be glad to get back to your work again. At the same time, you need not trouble your head for plots for many a day."
David admitted that the situation had its compensations, and went off to bed. Bell met him the next day as fresh as if he had had a full night"s rest, and vouchsafed the information that the patient was as well as possible. He was cold and no longer feverish.
"In fact, he is ready for the operation at any time," he said. "I shall get Heritage here to dinner, and we shall operate afterwards with electric light. It will be a good steadier for Heritage"s nerves, and the electric light is the best light of all for this business. If you have got a few yards of spare flex from your reading-lamp I"ll rig the thing up without troubling your electrician. I can attach it to your study lamp."
"I"ve got what you want," David said. "Now come in to breakfast."
There was a pile of letters on the table, and on the top a telegram. It was a long message, and Bell watched Steel"s face curiously.
"From Littimer Castle," he suggested. "Am I right?"
"As usual," David cried. "My little scheme over that diamond star has worked magnificently. Miss Chris tells me that she has--by Jove, Bell, just listen--she has solved the problem of the cigar-case; she has found out the whole thing. She wants me to meet her in London to-morrow, when she will tell me everything."
CHAPTER XLVI
LITTIMER"S EYES ARE OPENED
Lord Littimer sat on the terrace, shaded from the sun by an awning over his deck-chair. From his expression he seemed to be at peace with all the world. His brown, eager face had lost its usually keen, suspicious look; he smoked a cigarette lazily. Chris sat opposite him looking as little like a hard-working secretary as possible.
As a matter of fact, there was nothing for her to do. Littimer had already tired of his lady secretary idea, and had Chris not interested and amused him he would have found some means to get rid of her before now.
But she did interest and amuse and puzzle him. There was something charmingly reminiscent about the girl. She was like somebody he had once known and cared for, but for the life of him he could not think who. And when curiosity sometimes got the better of good breeding Chris would baffle him in the most engaging manner.
"Really, you are an exceedingly clever girl," he said.
"In fact, we are both exceedingly clever," Chris replied, coolly. "And yet n.o.body is ever quite so clever as he imagines himself to be. Do you ever make bad mistakes, Lord Littimer?"
"Sometimes," Littimer said, with a touch of cynical humour. "For instance, I married some years ago. That was bad. Then I had a son, which was worse."
"At one time you were fond of your family?"
"Well, upon my word, you are the only creature I ever met who has had the audacity to ask me that question. Yes, I was very fond of my wife and my son, and, G.o.d help me, I am fond of them still. I don"t know why I talk to you like this."
"I do," Chris said, gently. "It is because unconsciously you yearn for sympathy. And you fancy you are in no way to blame; you imagine that you acted in the only way consistent with your position and dignity. You fancied that your son was a vulgar thief. And I am under the impression that Lady Littimer had money."
"She had a large fortune," Littimer said, faintly. "Miss Lee, do you know that I have a great mind to box your ears?"