Then, catching sight of the young man as he peered into her face, she exclaimed:
"Robin!"
"Thank G.o.d, you"re all right, Mary," said Robin. "We"ve not got a moment to lose. We must get away from here quick!"
He was at the bonnet cranking up the car. But the engine, chilled by the cold air, refused to start. As he was straining at the handle, a man dashed suddenly into the yard by the office door.
It was Jeekes. The little secretary was a changed man. He still wore his _pince-nez_. But his mild air had utterly forsaken him. His face was livid, the eyes bulged horribly from his head, and his whole body was trembling with emotion. In his hand he held an automatic pistol. He came so fast that he was at the car and had covered Robin with his weapon before the other had seen him come.
Mr. Jeekes left Robin no time to act. He called out in a voice that rang like a pistol shot:
"Hands up, Mr. Smartie! Quick, d"you hear? Put "em up, d.a.m.n you!"
Slowly, defiantly the young man raised his arms above his head.
Mr. Jeekes stood close to the driver"s seat, having prudently put the car between himself and Robin. As he stood there, his automatic levelled at the young man, a remarkable thing happened. A black, soft surface suddenly fell over his face and was pulled back with a brisk tug. Mary Trevert, standing up in the back seat of the car, had flung her fur over the secretary"s head from behind and caught him in a noose. Before Mr.
Jeekes could disentangle himself, Robin was at his throat and had borne him to the ground. The pistol was knocked skilfully from his hand and fell clattering on the flags. Robin pounced down on it. Then for the first time he smiled, a sunny smile that lit up his blue eyes.
"Bravo, Mary!" he said. "That _was_ an idea! Now, then, Jeekes," he ordered, "crank up that car. And be quick about it! We want to be off!"
The little secretary was a lamentable sight. He was bleeding from a cut on the forehead, his clothes were covered with dust, and his gla.s.ses had been broken in his fall. Peering helplessly about him, he walked to the bonnet of the car and sullenly grasped the handle. The smile had left Robin"s face, and Mary noticed that he looked several times anxiously at the office door.
And then suddenly the engine bit. Handing the pistol to the girl, Robin warned her to keep the secretary covered and, leaping into the driving-seat, turned the car into the avenue which curved round the house.
Mr. Jeekes made no further show of fight. He remained standing in the centre of the courtyard, a ludicrous, rather pathetic, figure. As the tyres of the car gritted on the gravel of the drive, the office door was flung open and the yellow-faced man ran out, brandishing a big revolver.
"Stop!" he shouted and levelled his weapon. The car seemed to leap forward and took the sharp turn on two wheels just as the man fired. The bullet struck the wall of the house and sent up a shower of plaster.
Before he could fire again the car was round the house and out of sight.
But as the car whizzed round the turn an instant before the yellow-faced man fired, the girl heard a sharp cry from Jeekes:
"Don"t, Victor ...!"
The rest of the sentence was lost in the roar of the engine as the car raced away down the drive.
They left the avenue in a splutter of wet gravel. The gate still stood open. They wheeled furiously into the side road and regained the _chaussee_. As yet there was no sign of pursuit. The car rocked dangerously over the broken _pave_, so Robin, after a glance behind, steadied her down to an easier pace. Mary, who looked very pale and ill, was lying back on the back seat with her eyes closed.
They ran easily into Rotterdam as, with a terrific jangle of tunes played jerkily on the chimes, the clocks were striking two. Robin slowed down as they approached the centre of the city.
"Where are you staying, Mary?" he asked.
He had to repeat the question several times before she gave him the address. Then he found himself in a quandary. He was in a strange town and did not know a word of the language so as to be able to ask the way.
However, he solved the difficulty without great trouble. He beckoned to a newspaper boy on the square outside the Bourse and, holding up a two-gulden piece, indicated by signs that he desired him as a guide. The boy comprehended readily enough and, springing on the footboard of the car, brought them safely to the hotel.
Robin left Mary and the car in charge of the boy and went to the office and asked to see the manager. He had decided upon the story he must tell.
"Miss Trevert," he said, when the manager, a blond and suave Swiss, had presented himself, "has been to the dentist and has been rather upset by the gas. Would you get one of the maids to help her up to her room and in the meantime telephone for a doctor. If there is an English doctor in Rotterdam, I should prefer to have him!"
The manager clicked in sympathy. He despatched a lady typist and a chambermaid to help Mary out of the car.
"For a doctor," he said, "it ees fortunate. We "ave an English doctor staying in ze hotel now--a sheep"s doctor. He is in ze lounge. Eef you come, _hein?_"
The "sheep"s doctor" proved to be a doctor off one of the big liners, a clean-shaven, red-faced, hearty sort of person who readily volunteered his services. As Robin was about to follow him into the lift, the manager stopped him.
"Zere was a shentleman call to see Mees Trevert," he said, "two or three time "e been "ere ... a Sherman shentleman. "E leave "er a note ... will you take it?"
Greatly puzzled, Robin Greve balanced in his hands the letter which the manager produced from a pigeon-hole. Then he tore open the envelope.
DEAR MISS TREVERT [he read], I was extremely sorry to miss you this morning. Directly I received your message I called at your hotel, but, though I have been back twice, I have not found you in.
Circ.u.mstances have arisen which make it imperative that I should see you as soon as possible. This is _most urgent_. I will come back at four o"clock, as I cannot get away before. Do not leave the hotel _on any pretext_ until you have seen me and Dulkinghorn"s letter as identification. You are in _grave danger_.
The note was signed "W. Schulz."
"H"m," was Robin"s comment; "he writes like an Englishman, anyway."
He ascertained the number of Mary Trevert"s room and went up to her floor in the lift. He waited in the corridor outside the room for the doctor to emerge, and lit a cigarette to while away the time. It was not until he had nearly finished his second cigarette that the doctor appeared.
The doctor hesitated on seeing Robin. Then he stepped close up to him.
Robin noticed that his red face was more flushed than usual and his eyes were troubled.
"What"s this c.o.c.k-and-bull story about gas you"ve put up to the manager?" he said bluntly in a low voice. "The girl"s been doped with chloroform, as well you know. You"ll be good enough to come downstairs to the manager with me ..."
Robin took out his note-case and produced a card.
"That"s my name," he said. "You"ll see that I"m a barrister ..."
"Well?" said the doctor in a non-committal voice after he had read the card.
"I"m not surprised to hear you say that Miss Trevert has been doped,"
Robin remarked. "I found her here in a house on the outskirts of Rotterdam in the hands of two men, one of whom is believed to be implicated in a mysterious case of suspected murder in England. Through the part he played this morning, he has probably run his head into the noose. But he"ll have it out again if we delay an instant. I told the manager that yarn about the dentist to avoid enquiries and waste of time. I have here a note from some man I don"t know, addressed to Miss Trevert, warning her of a grave danger threatening her. It corroborates to some extent what I have told you. Here ... read it for yourself!"
He handed the doctor the note signed "W. Schulz."
The doctor read it through carefully.
"What I would propose to you," said Robin, "is that we two should go off at once to this Herr Schulz and find out exactly what he knows. Then we can decide what action there is to be taken ..."
He paused for the doctor"s reply. The latter searched Robin"s face with a glance.
"I"m your man," he said shortly. "And, by the way, my name"s Collingwood ... Robert Collingwood."
"There"s a car downstairs," said Robin, "and a guide to show us the way.
Shall we go?"
Five minutes later, under the newsboy"s expert guidance, the car drew up in front of the small clean house with the neat green door bearing the name of "Schulz." Leaving the boy to mind the car, they rang the bell.
The door was opened by the fat woman in the pink print dress.
Robin gave the woman his card. On it he had written "About Miss Trevert." Speaking in German the woman bade them rather roughly to bide where they were, and departed after closing the front door in their faces. She did not keep them waiting long, however, for in about a minute she returned. Herr Schulz would receive the gentlemen, she said.
Within, the house was spotlessly clean with that characteristic German house odour which always seems to be a compound of cleaning material and hot grease. Up a narrow staircase, furnished in plain oil-cloth with bra.s.s stair-rods, they went to a landing on the first floor. Here the woman motioned them back and, bending her head in a listening att.i.tude, knocked.