'Anyhow, we found the house didn't belong to him and the few bits of furniture didn't bring in much after the lawyer was paid, and Milly having no relatives at all it was for me to do the best for her I could. Fortunately I've been a careful woman so I had a bit tucked away in the bank for me old age as you might say, but not enough for the interest on 'it to keep the two of us, even living very quiet, and my money would have gone in a year or so if I hadn't been able to get a job.'
Wells nodded sympathetically and the broad bosomed Mrs. Bird went on: 'One day I saw an advertisement in the paper "Caretaker wanted for country house, occasionally visited by tenants, must be able to cook, no other staff kept." Well, that might not have suited everybody as it looked a lonesome sort of post and most caretakers aren't much good in the kitchen, but it suited me all right so I put on my bonnet and went up to apply, as the advertisement said, to the office of the Carlton Hotel.
'I was shown up to a private sitting room where there was a funny little deformed creature who told me he was Lord Gavin Fortescue and that the advertisement was his. He asked me no end of questions about the doctor and the life I'd led, but in the end he seemed satisfied and agreed that Milly might live in the house with me too. He made a point of it that I was to have no other visitors though, even for a cup of tea, because there's all sorts of valuables in the house. He was afraid that if people came to the place they might speak about them to other folk outside and that might lead to a visit from the burglars. Very scared of having burglars in his absence, he was, and he asked me if I was afraid of handling firearms.
'I said I wasn't afraid of burglars or firearms and that seemed to please him quite a lot because he told me he would have put a man in; except that it was so difficult to find a man who could cook. As he flew backwards and forwards from France quite a lot on business he'd be landing in the grounds, sometimes late at night, and want a meal. He put me through it proper about the cooking too, as to what I could do and what not. A very particular gentleman he seemed but it wasn't for me to argue about that so Milly and I moved in last February.'
'That's all nice and clear Mrs. Bird,' the Inspector nodded. 'Now, will you tell us what's been happening since.'
'He didn't come near the place for a month, except to settle us in. It was then he gave me the revolver with instructions that if I saw anybody in the grounds at night I was to shoot first and ask questions afterwards. He said the police wouldn't make any trouble about it, me being a lone woman in a house like this, and that my first duty was to protect the property.
He said too, he'd prefer me not to go into Birchington or any of the other places round about, or make friends with the local people and that I'd have no cause to bother with the tradesmen calling because all our food would be sent down from London, except fresh vegetables and fruit, as it is in big cases marked "Fortnum" and very good food too. Towards the end of April '
'You hardly see a soul apart from the gardeners then?' Gregory interrupted.
'No, and not much of them either. All but one old deaf chap and a couple of lads who look after the glass houses and keep the place tidy have been lent to a charity institution by the owner of the estate while he's away. It's for a big new building they're putting up near Canterbury and a lovely place they're making of it too I'm told. They have to live near their work, of course, so the head gardener's cottage has been empty since we've been here and he only comes over once in a while for an hour or so to see that the others is not neglecting their job.'
'How about the lodge keeper? I suppose there is one in a place like this.'
'Well, he had an accident poor man, soon after we got here.'
'What sort of accident?' Gregory asked quickly.
'Knocked down by a motor car, he was, just outside the park gates, but his Lordship behaved very decent about that. Sent him away to have treatment at Bournemouth, and his wife and children with him all expenses paid.'
Gregory exchanged a significant glance with Wells. 'Then apart from your foster daughter and yourself there is not a single person sleeps on the estate now.'
'That's so, sir.'
'You were going to tell us what happened at the end of April.'
'Well, his little Lordship came down and stayed the night. Then next day a gang of workmen arrived to build a big shed at the edge of the trees on the far side of the house. A few days later he turned up again in an aeroplane which was garaged in the shed. Since then he's been backwards and forwards quite a lot, mostly at night time, and he never stays more than a few hours. Sometimes there's a tall gentleman with him, who's got a game leg and sometimes a dark lady. Very lovely she is; but some sort of foreigner. She was with him tonight and he always has two men too who fly his plane. He gives very little trouble and pays my wages regular as clockwork. Always very civil, too, though silent, and it never entered my head that there could be anything tricky about him until tonight. You wouldn't think it yourself, would you, him being a lord and a rich one into the bargain?'
The Inspector smiled noncommittally. 'And is that all you can tell us Mrs. Bird?'
'It is. And now it's my turn. It's funny somehow that it never struck me as queer before, this landing in aeroplanes at night and him not wanting me to make friends with the people round about. Isn't he a lord at all?'
'Oh, his name is Lord Gavin Fortescue,' Gregory assured her, 'but the fact of a man having a title doesn't necessarily prevent him being a criminal.'
'The sooner we get out the better then. It's hard to lose an easy job but I've got Milly to think of.'
'I hope you won't decide to do that, Mrs. Bird,' Wells said quickly. 'There's not the least likelihood of these people doing you or Miss Chalfont any harm and if you say nothing about our visit they won't have any reason to suspect you of knowing that the police are interested in their activities. If you can see your way to stay on here just as though nothing had happened it'd be a very great help to us. You see, I'd send a man down to keep in touch with you outside the Park and through him you could let us know each time Lord Gavin or his people come and go from here.'
'That's all very well, young man, but if they're criminals, as you say, they might murder us both in our beds one night.'
'No, no! Their business is smuggling silks and other dutiable goods over from France and I feel certain that they won't do you the least harm. There's another point too, if you leave at once you'll be out of a job again, whereas if you're prepared to stay on and give us your help I think I can promise we'll be able to find a comfortable billet in a decent family for you, when it's all over, through the police organisation.'
Mrs. Bird considered for a moment. 'It'd be a big load off my mind if you could. All right, I'll stay then.'
'Splendid.' The Inspector stood up. 'Well now, I haven't got a search warrant but since you're going to give us your help you won't mind if I have an unofficial look round the house, will you? I just might spot something which would be useful to us later on.'
Mrs. Bird nodded agreement, but Gregory shrugged. 'As they only use this place for secret landings, and never stay here more than an hour or two, I doubt if you'll find anything of interest. Anyhow, I'm going to leave you to it and get back to London. Poor old Rudd looks as though he could do with an hour or two's sleep.'
Rudd yawned. 'You've said it, sir, but you're looking fresh as a daisy yourself. How you manage to keep going at times like this has always bin a poser ter me.'
Wells came out to see them on their way and accompanied them through the shrubbery at the side of the house round to its front. It was past four o'clock and in the faint light of the early summer dawn the coppices and broad meadows of the park now showed up clearly. To their left, from a group of trees a few hundred yards away, a turret rose, crowned by an openwork steel spire which looked like a small replica of the Eiffel Tower or a wireless mast, adding an extra fifty feet to its height. On the fringe of another group of trees, a little nearer, to their right, they could now see a big wooden shed.
; Gregory jerked his head towards it. 'That's the hangar where they house the plane. Having all those trees "behind it explains why I failed to spot it last night.'
'They've certainly got the very place for their job here,' Wells commented. 'That steel mast above the tower must be visible for miles. It's perfect for a signal light to bring in other planes that don't know the lie of the land.'
'Well, what does A. do now?' asked Gregory, preparing to move off.
The young Inspector laughed. He was in high good humour as a result of his night's work. 'A., being you, calls at the Carlton tomorrow and endeavours to make contact with B., the lady in the case. It looks like more than even chances she's staying there again and I daren't go near the place. She'd flit at the bare sight of me, knowing now that I'm a policeman, while C, being myself, returns to dull routine, sending a junior here to keep in touch with Mrs. Bird and the Park under observation.'
'Right, then. So long, Inspector.' Gregory turned away with Rudd beside him and set off down the east drive towards the field where he had left his plane.
Wells went back into the house and his inspection of it soon assured him that Gregory's view had been correct. It was only used as a port of call from which Lord Gavin and his associates came and went without arousing the suspicions of the residents in Birchington. No papers which might throw further light upon the conspiracy seemed to be kept there. The drawers of all the desks and bureaux were unlocked and empty and there was no safe in the house.
The two tall windowless buildings behind the conservatories to the west, which Gregory had thought might be squash or tennis courts, proved to be the Museum holding the magnificent collection of Major Powell Cotton, the absent owner of the estate. Vast cases, occupying in some instances the fall length of the walls and twenty feet or more in height, contained jungle scenes where the great stuffed beasts, elephant, rhino, sable antelope, baboon, kudu, giraffe, and countless other varieties of wild beasts were mounted in lifelike postures, plunging through tall grass or wallowing in muddy streams, so that they could be seen in all the splendour of their natural habitation.
On other walls of the buildings were ranged smaller cases containing native costumes and weapons, the grotesque masks, of African witch doctors, collections of fearsome looking beetles and a thousand other items of interest, brought from every corner of Africa, India and Tibet by the great hunter.
As Wells could make no further move of importance in his investigation until he learned whether Gregory had managed to get in touch with Sabine, he saw no necessity to hurry back to London, so he spent over an hour admiring the great beasts and studying the curiosities in the smaller cases. It was half past six before he got back to Mrs. Bird's kitchen again and with her he found Milly.
The girl had been woken early by the crunch of his feet on the gravel under her window an hour before. Looking out and seeing a strange man in the grounds she had rushed to tell her foster mother who told her of the surprising events which had happened during the night.
Milly was dressed now in a light blue summer frock that enhanced the blue of her eyes and set off to perfection her delicate colouring and golden hair. When Wells was introduced she was agog with excitement at meeting a real detective from Scotland Yard.
Mrs. Bird, who was cooking breakfast for the girl, suggested that the Inspector could do with another cup of tea before he left and that, while she was getting it ready, the pair of them should go out and pick some fresh raspberries in the garden.
Nothing loath, the Inspector left the house again with Milly and she took him along a path behind the Museum buildings to a big walled garden.
She seemed a shy young creature and he found himself unaccountably tongue-tied, although he had an inward desire to start a conversation which might prolong the pleasure of being with her alone in the great garden, now made more lovely by the hush of the early summer morning.
'Your work must be awfully interesting,' she said at last.
'Rather,' said Gerry Wells. 'I've been lucky, too. I'm the youngest Inspector that's ever been seconded to the Special Branch.'
'You must be very clever then,' she said shyly.
He found himself blushing as he met the candid gaze of her large admiring eyes. 'Oh, no,' he hastened to protest, 'lucky that's all. I did quite well at school though, managed to get a scholarship and, as a matter of fact, I owe a great deal to my dad. He was a mechanic in the R.A.F. in the Great War. Now, he's a clever fellow if you like; so good at his job they kept him on afterwards in the technical department where the new planes are designed. He taught me all I know about engines and how to fly when I was quite a boy. That's one of the things that's led to my promotion because, you see, we haven't got a great many pilots in the force, but nowadays we have to move with the times and flying comes in useful.'
'It must be wonderful to fly,' she murmured.
'Take you up sometime,' said Gerry, 'that's if you'd care to go.'
'I've always thought I'd be frightened to fly but I wouldn't be frightened with you. If you'd like to take me.'
A happy grin spread over his freckled boyish face. 'That's a date then, although I may not be able to take you up for a bit yet, not till this business is over.'
'Is it a very dangerous business?'
'Well, perhaps you might say so in a way, but I've seen a good few rough houses in the last ten years and I can look after myself fairly well. Three crooks set on me a few nights ago over in Trouville but I managed to get away.' The Inspector felt a twinge of conscience as he failed to mention Gregory's assistance; but he refrained from doing so from the very human desire to impress the girl.
Milly's eyes grew larger and rounder than ever. 'You must be very brave and very strong,' she said.
He drew himself up instinctively among the raspberry canes and tensed the muscles of his fine shoulders. 'All in the day's work,' he said casually, 'and of course police training helps a lot. We're taught jujutsu you know, and various wrestling holds, which gives us a bit of an advantage. I rather like a rough and tumble now and again. It keeps me fit. Are you are you interested in cricket?'
'I love it,' said Milly, who had once in her life been taken to the Oval. 'I think it's a splendid game, don't you?'
'Yes. I'm pretty keen myself. As a matter of fact I play for the first eleven of the Flying Squad.'
'Fancy your being in the Flying Squad; that must be awfully thrilling. You have to chase car bandits, don't you?'
'Yes. I've done quite a lot of that, but it's not so interesting as this special job I've just been given. It's a real big thing, this ' is, and if I pull it off it might mean promotion again.'
'Oh, I do hope you do. Wouldn't it be wonderful if they made you a Commissioner?'
Gerry smiled. 'That's a bit too much to hope for yet I'm afraid, but you never know if I might not end up as an A.C., in another twenty years or so.'
If the truth be told they ate more of the raspberries than they picked yet the little basket that Milly carried was full now and there was not room in it for another one. They would both have liked to linger longer but there did not seem to be any excuse to do so and for the moment neither could think of another line of conversation so, in an embarrassed silence, they returned to the big house.
Mrs. Bird met them with the news that Milly's breakfast was ready and pressed the Inspector to join her for a second meal. He accepted for the pleasure of remaining a little longer, managed two cups of tea and a further ration of raspberries, then when there no longer seemed any reasonable excuse for delaying his departure another moment he reluctantly said goodbye, but Milly volunteered to walk with him as far as the gate of the Park and see him off.
In a silence that was almost painful they walked down the east drive side by side and leaving the park crossed the field to the Inspector's plane. He unscrewed the pickets and stowed them in the cockpit then turned to say goodbye.
Milly held out a frail little hand and laid it in his big brown one. 'Shall we shall we be se
eing you again soon? she asked
He smiled. 'I hope so; just as soon as I can manage it. With crooks in this place it's part of my job now to keep my eye on it.'
'Well, knowing that, we shan't be the least bit frightened/ she said simply. 'But do take care of yourself, won't you?'
'Rather,' he grinned, 'as you've been nice enough to ask me to.
11
The Beautiful Hungarian
Sir Pellinore Gwaine-Cust stretched out his long legs and regarded Gregory with an approving stare. 'And what's the next move my boy what’s the next move?' he asked with sudden briskness.
'Lunch,' said Gregory. 'I'm a complete fool to introduce you to the girl, of course, because it's almost certain you'll cut me out. But someone's got to give us both lunch at the Carlton and I thought it might as well be you.'
'Cut you out, eh! Well, if she's all you say she is, dammit, I might have a shot at it, specially if you don't do' your stuff better than you did at Deauville. Are you certain she's at the Carlton, though?'
'Yes. I rang up to find out immediately I got home.'
'D'you speak to her?'
'Good Lord no. I just ascertained from the office that they had an angel called Szenty beneath their roof. She hasn't the least idea that Wells got on to her in the first place through the fellow she sold the stockings to in Regent Street when she was staying there before. You see, she'd never heard of Wells's existence until he presented himself as a business man at her office in Paris. She can't know we've rumbled Quex Park either and that Mrs. Bird told us Lord Gavin engaged her while he was staying at the Carlton in February which gave us a second line on it being their port of call in London.'
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