"Blooming mystery," the young man p.r.o.nounced. "That"s the conclusion every one seems to arrive at. A chap I know, whose chauffeur pals up with Rees" valet, told me that he"s been having heaps of threatening letters from fellows who"d got the knock over the B. & I. He seemed to think they"d done him in."
Dredlinton shivered nervously.
"It"s perfectly abominable," he declared. "Here we are supposed to have the finest police system in the world, and yet a man can disappear from his rooms in the very centre of London, and no one has even a clue as to what has become of him."
"Looks bad," Jimmy acknowledged.
"I don"t understand much about business affairs," Sarah remarked, "but the B. & I. case does seem to be a remarkably unpopular undertaking."
Dredlinton kicked a footstool out of his way, frowning angrily.
"The B. & I. is only an ordinary business concern," he insisted. "We have a right to make money if we are clever enough to do it. We speculate in lots of other things besides wheat, and we have our losses to face as well as our profits. I believe that fellow Wingate is at the bottom of all this agitation. Just like those confounded Americans. Why can"t they mind their own business!"
"It isn"t very long," Josephine remarked drily, "since we were rather glad that America didn"t mind her own business."
"Bosh!" her husband scoffed. "If English people are to be bullied and their liberty interfered with in this manner, we might as well have lost the war and become a German Colony."
"Don"t agree with you, sir," Jimmy declared, with most unusual seriousness. "I don"t like the way you are talking, and I"m dead off the B. & I. myself. I"d cut my connection with it, if I were you. Been looking for trouble for a long time--and, great Scot, I believe they"re going to get it!"
"d.a.m.ned rubbish!" Lord Dredlinton muttered angrily.
"Heavens! Jimmy"s in earnest!" Sarah exclaimed, rising. "I am sure it"s time we went. We are overdue at his mother"s, and one of my cylinders is missing. Come on, Jimmy.--Good-by, Josephine dear! You"ll forgive us if we hurry off? I did tell you we had to go directly after dinner, didn"t I?"
"You did, dear," Josephine a.s.sented, walking towards the door with her friend. "Come in and see me again soon."
There was the sound of voices in the hall. Lord Dredlinton started eagerly.
"That"s the fellow from Scotland Yard, I hope," he said. "Promised to come round to-night. Perhaps they"ve news of Stanley."
The door was thrown open, and the new butler ushered in a tall, thin man dressed in morning clothes of somewhat severe cut.
"Inspector Shields, my lord," he announced.
CHAPTER XIX
Lord Dredlinton"s impatience was almost feverish. One would have imagined that Stanley Rees had been one of his dearest friends, instead of a young man whom he rather disliked.
"Come in. Inspector," he invited. "Come in. Glad to see you. Any news?"
"None whatever, my lord," was the laconic reply.
Dredlinton"s face fell. He looked at his visitor, speechless for a moment. The inspector gravely saluted Josephine and accepted the chair to which she waved him.
"Upon my word," Dredlinton declared, "this is most unsatisfactory! Most disappointing!"
"I was afraid that you might find it so," the inspector a.s.sented.
Josephine turned in her chair and contemplated the latter with some interest. He was quietly dressed in well-cut but un.o.btrusive clothes. His long, narrow face had features of sensibility. His hair was grizzled a little at the temples. His composure seemed part of the man, pa.s.sive and imperturbable.
"Isn"t a disappearance of this sort rather unusual?" she enquired.
"Most unusual, your ladyship," the man admitted. "I scarcely remember a similar case."
""Unusual" seems to me a mild word!" Dredlinton exclaimed angrily. "Here is a well-known young man, with friends in every circle of life and engagements at every hour, a partner in an important commercial undertaking, who is absolutely removed from his rooms in one of the best-known hotels in London, and at the end of three days the police are powerless to find out what has become of him!"
"Up to the present, my lord," the inspector confessed, "we certainly have no clue."
"But, dash it all, you must have some idea as to what has become of him?"
his questioner insisted. "Young men don"t disappear through the windows of the Milan Bar, do they?"
"If you a.s.sure us, my lord, that we may rule out any idea of a voluntary disappearance--"
"Voluntary disappearance be d.a.m.ned!" Dredlinton interrupted. "Don"t let me hear any more of such rubbish! I can a.s.sure you that such a supposition is absolutely out of the question."
"Then in that case, my lord, I may put it to you that Mr. Rees"
disappearance is due to the action of no ordinary criminal or blackmailer, but is part of a much more deeply laid scheme."
"Exactly what do you mean?" was the almost fierce demand.
"It appears that Mr. Rees," the inspector went on, speaking with some emphasis, "is connected with an undertaking which during the last few weeks has provoked a wave of anger and disgust throughout the country."
"Are you referring to the British and Imperial Granaries, Limited?" his interlocutor enquired.
"That, I believe, is the name of the company."
Lord Dredlinton"s anxiety visibly increased. He was standing underneath the suspended globe of the electric light, his fingers nervously pulling to pieces the cigarette which he had been smoking. There was a look of fear in his weak eyes. Josephine surveyed him thoughtfully. The coward in him had flared up, and there was no room for any other characteristic.
Fear was written in his face, trembled in his tone, betrayed itself in his gestures.
"But, dash it all," he expostulated, "there are other directors! I am one myself. Don"t you see how serious this all is? If Rees can be spirited away and no one be able to lift up a finger to help him, what about the rest of us?"
"It was in my mind to warn your lordship," Shields observed.
Dredlinton"s fear merged into fury,--a blind and nerveless pa.s.sion.
"But this is outrageous!" he exclaimed, striking the table with his fist.
"Do you mean to say that you can come here to me from Scotland Yard--to me, a peer of England, living in the heart of London--and tell me that a friend and a business connection of mine has been kidnapped and practically warn me against the same fate? What on earth do we pay our police for? What sort of a country are we living in? Are you all nincomp.o.o.ps?"
"We remain what we are, notwithstanding your lordship"s opinion," the inspector answered, with a shade of sarcasm in his level tone. "I may add that I am not the only one engaged in this Investigation, and I can only do my duty according to the best of my ability."
"You"ve done nothing--nothing at all!" Dredlinton protested angrily.
"Added to that, you actually come here and warn me that I, too, may be the victim of a plot, against the ringleaders of which you seem to be helpless. The British and Imperial Granaries is a perfectly legitimate company doing a perfectly legitimate business. We"re not out for our health--who is in the City? If we can make money out of wheat, it"s our business and n.o.body else"s."
The inspector was a little weary, but he continued without any sign of impatience.
"I know nothing about the British and Imperial Granaries, my lord," he said. "My time is too fully occupied to take any interest in outside affairs. In the course of time," he went on, "we shall inevitably get to the bottom of this very cleverly engineered conspiracy. Crime of every sort is detected sooner or later, except in the case, say, of a single-handed murder, or an offence of that nature. In the present instance, there is evidence that a very large number of persons were concerned, and detection finally becomes, therefore, a certainty. In the meantime, however, I thought it as well to pa.s.s you a word of warning."