"You don"t seem to take much convincing?" said Anthony, looking curiously at him.
Herman Isaacstein smiled.
"I shouldn"t be where I am now if I hadn"t learnt to know whether a man is speaking the truth or not," he replied simply. "What terms do you want?"
"The same loan, on the same conditions, that you offered to Prince Michael."
"What about yourself?"
"For the moment, nothing, except that I want you to come down to Chimneys tonight."
"No," said Isaacstein, with some decision. "I can"t do that."
"Why?"
"Dining out - rather an important dinner."
"All the same, I"m afraid you"ll have to cut it out - for your own sake."
"What do you mean?"
Anthony looked at him for a full minute before he said slowly: "Do you know that they"ve found the revolver, the one Michael was shot with? Do you know where they found it? In your suitcase."
"What?" Isaacstein almost leapt from his chair. His face was frenzied. "What are you saying? What do you mean?"
"I"ll tell you."
Very obligingly, Anthony narrated the occurrences in connection with the finding of the revolver. As he spoke the other"s face a.s.sumed a greyish tinge of absolute terror.
"But it"s false," he screamed out as Anthony finished. "I never put it there. I know nothing about it. It is a plot."
"Don"t excite yourself," said Anthony soothingly. "If that"s the case you"ll easily be able to prove it."
"Prove it? How can I prove it?"
"If I were you," said Anthony gently, "I"d come to Chimneys tonight."
Isaacstein looked at him doubtfully.
"You advise it?"
Anthony leant forward and whispered to him. The financier fell back in amazement, staring at him.
"You actually mean -"
"Come and see," said Anthony.
Chapter 27.
THE 13TH OF OCTOBER (continued) The clock in the council chamber struck nine.
"Well," said Lord Caterham, with a deep sigh. "Here they all are, just like little Bo-Peep"s flock, back again and wagging their tails behind them."
He looked sadly round the room.
"Organ grinder complete with monkey," he murmured, fixing the Baron with his eye. "Nosy Parker of Throgmorton Street -"
"I think you"re rather unkind to the Baron," protested Bundle, to whom these confidences were being poured out. "He told me that he considered you the perfect example of English hospitality among the haute n.o.blesse."
"I dare say," said Lord Caterham. "He"s always saying things like that. It makes him most fatiguing to talk to. But I can tell you I"m not nearly as much of the hospitable English gentleman as I was. As soon as I can I shall let Chimneys to an enterprising American, and go and live in an hotel. There, if anyone worries you, you can just ask for your bill and go."
"Cheer up," said Bundle. "We seem to have lost Mr Fish for good."
"I always found him rather amusing," said Lord Caterham, who was in a contradictory temper. "It"s that precious young man of yours who has let me in for this. Why should I have this board meeting called in my house? Why doesn"t he rent The Larches or Elmhurst, or some nice villa residence like that at Streatham, and hold his company meetings there?"
"Wrong atmosphere," said Bundle.
"No one is going to play any tricks on us, I hope?" said her father nervously. "I don"t trust that French fellow, Lemoine. The French police are up to all sorts of dodges. Put india-rubber bands round your arm, and then reconstruct the crime and make you jump, and it"s registered on a thermometer. I know that when they call out "Who killed Prince Michael?" I shall register a hundred and twenty-two or something perfectly frightful, and they"ll haul me off to jail at once."
The door opened and Tredwell announced: "Mr George Lomax. Mr Eversleigh."
"Enter Codders, followed by faithful dog," murmured Bundle.
Bill made a beeline for her, whilst George greeted Lord Caterham in the genial manner he a.s.sumed for public occasions.
"My dear Caterham," said George, shaking him by the hand, "I got your message and came over, of course."
"Very good of you, my dear fellow, very good of you. Delighted to see you." Lord Caterham"s conscience always drove him on to an excess of geniality when he was conscious of feeling none. "Not that it was my message, but that doesn"t matter at all."
In the meantime Bill was attacking Bundle in an undertone.
"I say. What"s it all about? What"s this I hear about Virginia bolting off in the middle of the night? She"s not been kidnapped, has she?"
"Oh, no," said Bundle. "She left a note pinned to the pincushion in the orthodox fashion."
"She"s not gone off with anyone, has she? Not with that Colonial Johnny? I never liked the fellow, and, from all I hear, there seems to be an idea floating around that he himself is the super-crook. But I don"t quite see how that can be."
"Why not?"
"Well, this King Victor was a French fellow, and Cade"s English enough."
"You don"t happen to have heard that King Victor was an accomplished linguist, and, moreover, was half Irish?"
"Oh, Lord! Then that"s why he"s made himself scarce, is it?"
"I don"t know about his making himself scarce. He disappeared the day before yesterday, as you know. But this morning we got a wire from him saying he would be down here at 9 PM tonight, and suggesting that Codders should be asked over. All these other people have turned up as well - asked by Mr Cade."
"It is a gathering," said Bill, looking round. "One French detective by window, one English ditto by fireplace. Strong foreign element. The Stars and Stripes don"t seem to be represented?"
Bundle shook her head.
"Mr Fish has disappeared into the blue. Virginia"s not here either. But everyone else is a.s.sembled, and I have a feeling in my bones, Bill, that we are drawing very near to the moment when somebody says "James, the footman", and everything is revealed. We"re only waiting now for Anthony Cade to arrive."
"He"ll never show up," said Bill.
"Then why call this company meeting, as Father calls it?"
"Ah, there"s some deep idea behind that. Depend upon it. Wants us all here while he"s somewhere else - you know the sort of thing."
"You don"t think he"ll come, then?"
"No fear. Run his head into the lion"s mouth? Why, the room"s bristling with detectives and high officials."
"You don"t know much about King Victor, if you think that would deter him. By all accounts, it"s the kind of situation he loves above all, and he always manages to come out on top."
Mr Eversleigh shook his head doubtfully.
"That would take some doing - with the dice loaded against him. He"ll never -"
The door opened again and Tredwell announced: "Mr Cade."
Anthony came straight across to his host.
"Lord Caterham," he said, "I"m giving you a frightful lot of trouble, and I"m awfully sorry about it. But I really do think that tonight will see the clearing up of the mystery."
Lord Caterham looked mollified. He had always had a secret liking for Anthony.
"No trouble at all," he said heartily.
"It"s very kind of you," said Anthony. "We"re all here, I see. Then I can get on with the good work."
"I don"t understand," said George Lomax weightily. "I don"t understand in the least. This is all very irregular. Mr Cade has no standing - no standing whatever. The position is a very difficult and delicate one. I am strongly of the opinion -"
George"s flood of eloquence was arrested. Moving un.o.btrusively to the great man"s side, Superintendent Battle whispered a few words in his ear. George looked perplexed and baffled.
"Very well, if you say so," he remarked grudgingly. Then added in a louder tone, "I"m sure we are all willing to listen to what Mr Cade has to say."
Anthony ignored the palpable condescension of the other"s tone.
"It"s just a little idea of mine, that"s all," he said cheerfully. "Probably all of you know that we got hold of a certain message in cipher the other day. There was a reference to Richmond, and some numbers." He paused. "Well, we had a shot at solving it - and we failed. Now in the late Count Stylpt.i.tch"s memoirs (which I happen to have read) there is a reference to a certain dinner - a "flower" dinner which everyone attended wearing a badge representing a flower. The Count himself wore the exact duplicate of that curious device we found in the cavity in the secret pa.s.sage. It represented a rose. If you remember, it was all rows of things - b.u.t.tons, letter E"s, and finally rows of knitting. Now, gentlemen, what is there in this house that is arranged in rows? Books, isn"t that so? Add to that, that in the catalogue of Lord Caterham"s library there is a book called The Life of the Earl of Richmond, and I think you will get a very fair idea of the hiding-place. Starting at the volume in question, and using the numbers to denote shelves and books, I think you will find that the - er - object of our search is concealed in a dummy book, or in a cavity behind a particular book."
Anthony looked round modestly, obviously waiting for applause.
"Upon my word, that"s very ingenious," said Lord Caterham.
"Quite ingenious," admitted George condescendingly. "But it remains to be seen -"
Anthony laughed.
"The proof of the pudding"s in the eating - eh? Well, I"ll soon settle that for you." He sprang to his feet. "I"ll go to the library -"
He got no farther. M. Lemoine moved forward from the window.
"Just one moment, Mr Cade. You permit, Lord Caterham?"
He went to the writing-table, and hurriedly scribbled a few lines. He sealed them up in an envelope, and then rang the bell. Tredwell appeared in answer to it. Lemoine handed him the note. "See that that is delivered at once, if you please."
"Very good, sir," said Tredwell.
With his usual dignified tread he withdrew.
Anthony, who had been standing, irresolute, sat down again.
"What"s the big idea, Lemoine?" he asked gently.
There was a sudden sense of strain in the atmosphere.
"If the jewel is where you say it is - well, it has been there for over seven years - a quarter of an hour more does not matter."
"Go on," said Anthony. "That wasn"t all you wanted to say?"
"No, it was not. At this juncture it is - unwise to permit any one person to leave the room. Especially if that person has rather questionable antecedents."
Anthony raised his eyebrows and lighted a cigarette.
"I suppose a vagabond life is not very respectable," he mused.
"Two months ago, Mr Cade, you were in South Africa. That is admitted. Where were you before that?"
Anthony leaned back in his chair, idly blowing smoke rings. "Canada. Wild Northwest."
"Are you sure you were not in prison? A French prison?"
Automatically, Superintendent Battle moved a step nearer the door, as if to cut off a retreat that way, but Anthony showed no signs of doing anything dramatic.
Instead, he stared at the French detective, and then burst out laughing.
"My poor Lemoine. It is a monomania with you! You do indeed see King Victor everywhere. So you fancy that I am that interesting gentleman?"
"Do you deny it?"
Anthony brushed a fleck of ash from his coat-sleeve.