Guffy shook his head. ‘If you’ve been in the mill the entire time,’ he said, ‘why on earth you chose to hide there, frightening the lives out of us and worrying us to death, I can’t possibly imagine.’
Mr Campion’s pale, foolish face became regretful. ‘I’m sorry about that,’ he said. ‘But what else could I possibly do? I’ve had to keep you in the dark because it was absolutely necessary for you all to behave exactly as if I had deserted you. You see, in this instance it really is a case of “spies everywhere”. The place is swarming with them.’
Guffy was still dubious. His leisurely mind was recalling the incidents of the past few days.
‘Then you explain Amanda’s behaviour,’ he said. ‘The three hundred pounds – the releasing of Miss Huntingforest after the raid – the new car. I suppose you engineered all that?’
Mr Campion regarded his friend and the seriousness in his face was so unlike him that Guffy was silenced altogether.
‘The exciting relation of my astounding adventures while in hiding I shall reserve for the club banquet,’ Campion continued. ‘As it is, my appearance at this particular juncture is an accident. But for the unforeseen intrusion of our friend in the next room you would have remained in ignorance of my duplicity until this evening. So, my dear old birds, do carry on as usual. Everything depends on that.’
‘You say “everything”,’ said Guffy gloomily. ‘Everything’s over. Our failure is complete and utter.’
‘Failure?’ exclaimed the Hereditary Paladin with spirit. ‘My poor dear imbecile friend, if we can screw our courage to the sticking point, as we say on the halls, we shall make good – succeed – win through – make the bell ring and get our money back. It’s only the next few hours which are difficult, and they’re so difficult and tetchy that I feel that Miss Huntingforest and Mary ought to be out of it, somehow. But as the whole success of the circus depends upon their complicity, I’m asking them to take the risk.’
‘I imagine one more risk or so won’t make much difference to me,’ said Aunt Hatt grimly.
Guffy looked uncomfortable. ‘Miss Huntingforest, I shall never forgive myself for the inconvenience and trouble we’ve brought upon you,’ he said.
‘They started before you came,’ said the lady with resignation.
‘Count us in on it,’ said Mary firmly, and the older woman nodded.
Mr Campion leant forward, a comic figure in his remarkable garments.
‘The situation, so far,’ he observed, ‘is definitely sound. If it weren’t for the simple-livers on the heath and the evidence delivered so neatly by the gentleman in the dining-room that our opponents are not so daft as I had hoped, the affair would be almost plain sailing. As it is, I’m afraid there’s a risk, a much greater one than I dreamed would ever be possible. These fellows are desperate. They’re working for a man who’s never yet been disappointed in anything he set his mind on.’
‘When you say the situation is sound,’ said Guffy, ‘what do you mean? I don’t see that we’re any further on than we were at the beginning.’
‘Not with the Charter well on its way to Whitehall? That’s a tremendous step. Oh, I forgot . . . Dear, dear, I hope you’re not going to be annoyed. You see, what happened was this. When I heard about Glencannon’s letter from Amanda I asked her to drop into Norwich for the drum. It never dawned on me that you three heroes would undertake the same task or I’d have left it to you. However, when at last it came into the house I couldn’t keep my hands off it. I watched Hal take it out of the car and then, seeing him looking out of his bedroom window, I guessed that he’d got it up there. I sneaked round the back of the mill, got in through the side door, and secreted myself on the upper landing, so that as soon as Hal went down to meet you fellows I was able to nip in and get the thing.’
‘But how did you know the Charter was inside?’
‘I didn’t, and it wasn’t,’ said the Hereditary Paladin. ‘It was where I hoped it would be from the moment I read the verse on the oak. The Charter was written on parchment, you remember. Well, as a matter of fact, it formed the under-head of the drum itself. Rather a natty hiding place, don’t you think? All the clerical work was on the inside, of course. It was genuine all right. Henry the Fourth’s seal and everything. Lugg took it over the fields to the Sweethearting road early this morning, I hope, and from there Eager-Wright will take it to town.’
Guffy, who had been listening to these revelations with the delight of a child, now became depressed.
‘Of course,’ he said, ‘you don’t know. Rather an awkward thing’s happened to Wright and Farquharson.’
‘Yes,’ began Mary, but words failed her as she caught the gleam in Amanda’s eyes.
Guffy looked scandalized. ‘Good heavens, Campion, was that you, too? I say, you know, it’ll take a bit of explaining, won’t it?’
‘It was the only way,’ said the Hereditary Paladin shamelessly. ‘Consider: this village is swarming with potential trouble-mongers. They’ve made two attempts to discover if we’ve got hold of anything and if so to appropriate it. They’re more or less convinced – or were until a few hours ago – that we have nothing. And yet they can’t understand why we’re still hanging about. They believe I’m safely on the way to South America, but at the same time they believe that you’re on to something or you’d hardly remain here. Well, reflect. If Eager-Wright sets out post-haste for town in the ordinary way they’d naturally hold him up, search him and take whatever was going. The problem that faced your old friend Albert is obvious to you. Those two birds had to be got away out of the community without arousing any suspicion whatever, and the arrest notion seemed to be the only one that fitted into the case. Lugg fixed it up this morning by phone from Sweethearting. We have a lot of odd friends in town who have no difficulty in getting hold of a little thing like a uniform or two. I hope they did their stuff well?’
‘Damned well,’ said Guffy, who was still not quite approving. ‘I suppose if they took us in they deceived those blighters on the heath.’
‘Oh, I think so. I told Lugg to see they did the thing properly. I imagine they called in at the pub, asked the way to the house, dropped a few elephantine hints about the young gents who were wanted for a motoring offence, and finally came down here and carried off their prize in triumph. Once they got outside Sweethearting they’ll pick up Lugg and the Charter, and Eager-Wright will take the car and go on. Farquharson will wait at that pub on the river for further developments. Rather smart organization, don’t you think? When, if ever, I come into my kingdom I’m thinking of making it into one of these new-fangled republics with myself as dictator.’
‘You talk about the importance of the next few hours,’ said Guffy. ‘Are we to take it that something really sensational is about to happen some time this evening?’
‘Well, yes, it’ll be sensational enough if it comes off. Oh, yes, quite definitely.’
‘We must put Dr Galley off, then,’ said Mary quickly.
‘Oh no, please don’t do that.’ Campion turned to her gravely. ‘That little jaunt is tremendously important. And that brings me to the subject of Dr Galley. He presents a rather interesting problem. While I know for a fact that he’s not definitely in league with our over-attentive friends, I observe that he’s up to something very queer, although what it is I can’t for the life of me imagine. When I first heard of his invitation I felt that it was the most awkward thing that could possibly have happened, but now I’m not so sure. Those good souls who are taking such tremendous interest in your movements just now will be taken completely off their guard if you all dutifully go out to tea, as it were, at this stage of the proceedings. All I dare tell you at the moment – and I’ve got to implore you to put your trust in little Albert – is that during your visit to old Galley you will receive the signal. You can’t miss it. It will force itself upon you. Then follow Amanda back here as hard as you can and leave the rest to her.
‘I’m sorry to be so mysterious,’ he went o
n unhappily, ‘but you must see how touchy the whole thing is. If all goes well to-night we shall have the third and last proof, the most important one, the Metternich receipt. The other two are important, but without this third trophy I’m afraid any suit would fail at the International Court at The Hague. Now you see just where we stand.’
He was looking at them appealingly, and they responded.
‘Rely on us,’ said Aunt Hatt with unexpected vigour. ‘I’m glad we’re going to Dr Galley’s,’ she continued, displaying once again her vein of practicalness, which never seemed to desert her, no matter how fantastic the situation became. ‘His story interested me. He might really have those proofs of Mary Fitton’s marriage.’
‘I thought that,’ said Campion, who appeared to know everything. ‘I heard the story from Amanda last night, and it seemed to me that it might be very likely. There’s something odd going on there, though, something I don’t understand at all.’
Amanda looked startled and hastily diverted the conversation.
‘You say we’ve got two proofs,’ she said. ‘We know about the Charter, but where’s the Crown?’
‘The Crown!’ said Mr Campion, aghast. ‘I forgot it.’ He rose to his feet, and dived into the dining-room where their captive lay.
It was some minutes before he returned, and then he came back triumphant, something shining in the palm of his outstretched hand. They pressed round him, and Aunt Hatt emitted a squeak of astonishment.
‘My garnet necklace!’
Mr Campion peered at her quizzically through his spectacles.
‘They’re not garnets,’ he said. ‘They’re very old square-cut rubies.’
‘Rubies? Why, it might be valuable.’
Mr Campion grinned. ‘It is. This exhibit, ladies and gentlemen, is the Crown of Averna.’
He held the necklet up so that they could all see it. It consisted of a roughly made chain of early red gold, worked to resemble a daisy-chain, and at uneven intervals three rustred-stones were set between the links. Three large white agates completed the circle, and a latter-day jeweller had inserted a very modern fastener, so that the round now appeared nothing more than a fashionable choker necklace of a somewhat unusual design.
‘There you are,’ said Campion. ‘Three drops of blood from a royal wound, three dull stars like the pigeon’s egg, held and knit together by a flowery chain.’
‘But it belonged to my mother,’ said Aunt Hatt in astonishment. ‘It was given to her by my father and it was always kept, I remember, in a walnut bureau which stood in the parlour, since it wasn’t fashionable to wear such ornate jewellery in those days. I remember that bureau quite well. It was inlaid, you see, with a little diamond-shaped panel in the writing flap. When you pressed the diamond at the bottom it came up and opened in two halves to show a tiny secret drawer behind.’
She stopped abruptly before the expressions on their faces.
‘The diamond!’ ejaculated Guffy. ‘“The diamond must be rent in twain Before he wear his crown again.” That bureau must have been part of the household furniture that went to America with Guy Huntingforest.’
‘But how did you know? And how did they guess? Why wasn’t it stolen before, when they searched the house?’
Not unnaturally Aunt Hatt was still finding the story difficult to believe.
‘If we take those questions backwards, the clever gentleman will endeavour to explain,’ said Campion. ‘In the first place, it wasn’t stolen when they searched the house because it wasn’t here then, and even if it had been no one knew quite what they were looking for.
‘Then for the second question. They guessed, I imagine, because in the last two days the man in authority has seen fit to appoint men of brains on this business. That’s what makes it so awkward for this evening’s performance. The gentleman in the next room is quite an eminent professional thief in his own line. He seems to have been told exactly what to look for. The thugs who descended on you last Thursday were hunting for something more obvious, I imagine, something they could take away in a hatbox.’
‘How did you guess?’ demanded Mary.
Mr Campion glanced down at the chain in his hand.
‘Last night,’ he said, ‘a rather pathetic figure, clutching her weeds about her, paused outside the lighted window where the family sat at their evening meal – just like you see on the pictures. If I had time I could bring tears to your eyes on this theme. However, when I was peeking in my eyes fell naturally upon Miss Huntingforest, and there she sat smiling and serene with the Crown of Averna round her neck. Stifling my hysterical shrieks of delight and astonishment, I went back into the darkness and decided that, as I didn’t want to give myself away, the Crown was probably as safe there as anywhere.’
‘But I don’t see how you could have guessed from just seeing it,’ said Amanda.
‘Oh, we master minds, we jump at things like that,’ said Mr Campion solemnly. ‘Of course, it seemed incredible at first, but I couldn’t get the description out of my head. However, it was not until I noticed something else that I was absolutely certain.’
‘Something else? What was that?’
‘Well,’ said the young man slowly, ‘the quotation from the manuscript goes on, you know: “And when a Pontisbright do wear it, none shall see it but by the stars.” Last night Miss Huntingforest was sitting between Hal and Mary, and what I noticed was this.’
He beckoned Hal towards him, and when the boy stepped forward obediently Campion placed the circlet upon his head. The effect was extraordinary, and somehow miraculously convincing. The flaming Pontisbright hair swallowed up the red gold, and the dull sheen of the strangely coloured rubies, so that all of the Crown that was visible were the three agates, the ‘three dull stars like the pigeon’s egg,’ creamy clear above the boy’s wide forehead.
CHAPTER XVIII
Doctor Galley’s Unusual Practice
‘IF YOU, AMANDA, will only think of me as Hannibal,’ said Mr Campion, tucking his threadbare skirt round his ankles as he sat huddled up on the stairs, ‘or Julius Caesar, or even that other great organizer, Policewoman Webb, the Lime-house Fairy-Godmother, you will see that my system for this evening is neat, snappy, quite the thing and well worth following.’
They were alone in the hall. The others had already set out for Dr Galley’s house, and only Amanda had lingered behind for final instructions. Now she stood leaning against the wall, her face pale with excitement and her eyes wide and questioning.
‘It’s all ready,’ she said. ‘We’ve got the boat down to the join in the river. It’s completely hidden. The trees meet in a tunnel there. Hal’s going to get the others aboard, and I shall let down the shuts. The river is very high, so it’ll come down with a rush and we ought to make good speed. I’ve had it all out with Hal, and he knows exactly what to do. I’d like to go over it again just to see I haven’t made a mistake. When we get to Sweethearting we take the car that will be waiting at “The George” and we go round the back way to Great Keepsake, where we wait for Scatty and Lugg, who will come by the fens.’
Mr Campion nodded. ‘I’m very proud of that bit,’ he said. ‘If your friends on the heath miss you they’ll take it for granted that you’ve made for London. It won’t occur to them to look further inland. However, if it should be necessary to go further afield leave it to Guffy. He knows West Suffolk very well. Anyway, most of it belongs to his father.’
Amanda shrugged her shoulders. ‘We shall be all right,’ she said valiantly. ‘Don’t bother about us. What I want to know is what’s going to happen to you? You’ll never do it all alone without me. Why not leave the escape to Hal, and let me stay behind to give you a hand?’
Mr Campion’s pale eyes met hers gravely. ‘Sorry, old lady,’ he said. ‘Can’t be done. Put it down to a natural desire on my part to hog all the glory.’
‘I do,’ said Amanda coldly. ‘And I think you’ve bitten off more than you can chew. I’m the technician, remember, and I don’t think you’
ve got any idea the sort of noise this . . .’
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