“It was protected with heavy bars,” said Tarling, “so nobody could have escaped that way.”
“I examined the wound,” Milburgh went on, nodding his agreement with Tarling’s description, “and knew that it was fatal. I do not think, however, that Mr. Thornton Lyne was dead at this time. My next thought was to stanch the wound, and I pulled open the drawer and took out the first thing which came to my hand, which was a nightdress. I had to find a pad and employed two of Odette’s handkerchiefs for the purpose. First of all I stripped him of his coat and his vest, a task of some difficulty, then I fixed him up as best I could. I knew his case was hopeless, and indeed I believe,” said Mr. Milburgh soberly, “I believe he was dead even before the bandaging was completed.
“Whilst I was doing something I found it was possible to forget the terrible position in which I would find myself if somebody came into the room. The moment I saw the case was hopeless, and had a second to think, I was seized with a blind panic. I snatched my overcoat from the peg and ran out of the room; through the back way into the mews, and reached Camden Town that night, a mental and physical wreck.”
“Did you leave the lights burning?” asked Tarling.
Mr. Milburgh thought for a moment.
“Yes,” he said, “I left the lights burning.”
“And you left the body in the flat?”
“That I swear,” replied Milburgh.
“And the revolver — when you got home was it in your pocket?”
Mr. Milburgh shook his head.
“Why did you not notify the police?”
“Because I was afraid,” admitted Mr. Milburgh. “I was scared to death. It is a terrible confession to make, but I am a physical coward.”
“There was nobody in the room?” persisted Tarling.
“Nobody so far as I could see. I tell you the window was open. You say it is barred — that is true, but a very thin person could slip between those bars. A woman—”
“Impossible,” said Tarling shortly. “The bars have been very carefully measured, and nothing bigger than a rabbit could get through. And you have no idea who carried the body away?”
“None whatever,” replied Milburgh firmly.
Tarling had opened his mouth to say something, when a telephone bell shrilled, and he picked up the instrument from the table on which it stood.
It was a strange voice that greeted him, a voice husky and loud, as though it were unused to telephoning.
“Tarling the name?” shouted the voice quickly.
“That is my name,” said Tarling.
“She’s a friend of yours, ain’t she?” asked the voice.
There was a chuckle. A cold shiver ran down Tarling’s spine; for, though he had never met the man, instinct told him that he was speaking to Sam Stay.
“You’ll find her tomorrow,” screamed the voice, “what’s left of her. The woman who lured him on… what’s left of her…”
There was a click, and the receiver was hung up.
Tarling was working the telephone hook like a madman.
“What exchange was that?” he asked, and the operator after a moment supplied the information that it was Hampstead.
XXXVI. At Highgate Cemetery
Odette Rider sat back in a corner of the smooth-running taxicab. Her eyes were closed, for the inevitable reaction had come. Excitement and anxiety had combined to give her the strength to walk to the cab with a firm step which had surprised the matron; but now, in the darkness and solitude, she was conscious of a depression, both physical and mental, which left her without the will or power for further effort.
The car sped through interminably long streets — in what direction she neither knew nor cared. Remember that she did not even know where the nursing home was situated. It might have been on the edge of London for all she was aware. Once, that was as the car was crossing Bond Street from Cavendish Square, she saw people turn and look at the cab and a policeman pointed and shouted something. She was too preoccupied to worry her head as to the cause.
She appreciated in a dim, vague way the skill of the taxidriver, who seemed to be able to grope his way through and around any obstruction of traffic; and it was not until she found the cab traversing a country road that she had any suspicion that all was not well. Even then her doubts were allayed by her recognition of certain landmarks which told her she was on the Hertford Road.
“Of course,” she thought. “I should be wanted at Hertford rather than in London,” and she settled herself down again.
Suddenly the cab stopped, backed down a side lane, and turned in the direction from whence they had come. When he had got his car’s head right, Sam Stay shut off his engine, descended from his seat, and opened the door.
“Come on out of that!” he said sharply.
“Why — what—” began the bewildered girl, but before she could go much farther the man dived in, gripped her by the wrist, and pulled her out with such violence that she fell.
“You don’t know me, eh?” The words were his as he thrust his face into hers, gripping her shoulders so savagely that she could have cried out in pain.
She was on her knees, struggling to get to her feet, and she looked up at the little man wonderingly.
“I know you,” she gasped. “You are the man who tried to get into my flat!”
He grinned.
“And I know you!” he laughed harshly. “You’re the devil that lured him on! The best man in the world… he’s in the little vault in Highgate Cemetery. The door is just like a church. And that’s where you’ll be tonight, damn you! Down there I’m going to take you. Down, down, down, and leave you with him, because he wanted you!”
He was gripping her by both wrists, glaring down into her face, and there was something so wolfish, so inhuman, in the madman’s staring eyes that her mouth went dry, and when she tried to scream no sound came. Then she lurched forward towards him, and he caught her under the arms and dragged her to her feet.
“Fainted, eh? You’ll faint, me lady,” he chuckled. “Don’t you wish you might never come round, eh? I’ll bet you would if you knew… if you knew!”
He dropped her on the grass by the side of the road, took a luggage strap from the front of the cab, and bound her hands. Then he picked up the scarf she had been wearing and tied it around her mouth.
With an extraordinary display of strength he lifted her without effort and put her back into the corner of the seat. Then he slammed the door, mounted again to his place, and sent the car at top speed in the direction of London. They were on the outskirts of Hampstead when he saw a sign over a tobacconist’s shop, and stopped the car a little way beyond, at the darkest part of the road. He gave a glance into the interior. The girl had slid from the seat to the floor and lay motionless.
He hurried back to the tobacconist’s where the telephone sign had been. At the back of his fuddled brain lingered an idea that there was somebody who would be hurt. That cruel looking devil who was cross-examining him when he fell into a fit — Tarling. Yes, that was the name, Tarling.
It happened to be a new telephone directory, and by chance Tarling’s name, although