The Bomb-Makers
Page 18
watching, saved the lives of thousands ofGreat Britain's gallant boys in khaki.
Two days later Theodore Drost was taken suddenly ill with symptoms whichpuzzled his local doctor at Barnes. He spoke to Ortmann over thetelephone, but the latter dared not risk a visit to Castelnau. Ellaalso heard from her father over the telephone when, that night, shereturned to Stamfordham Mansions at the end of the "show." She, knowingall she did, regarded a visit there as too dangerous, but rang upKennedy at his air-station and guardedly informed him of the situation.
Five days later Theodore Drost lay dead of a malady to which thebespectacled doctor at Barnes gave a name upon his certificate, but ofwhich he was really as ignorant as his own chauffeur.
But the curious part of the affair was that while Drost lay dead in thehouse, and the night before his burial, a mysterious fire broke outwhich gutted the place, a fact which no doubt must have been a greatmystery to Ortmann and his friends.
The Metropolitan Fire Brigade still entertain very grave suspicions thatit was due to an incendiary because of its fierceness; yet who, they askthemselves, could have had any evil design upon the property of the poordead Dutch pastor?
The End.