XXXVIII
TRAPPED
Cromarty and Carrington slipped unostentatiously out of the hotel a fewminutes after eight o'clock.
"Take any line you like," said Carrington, "but as he knows now that youbrought Miss Farmond back and have heard her version, he'll naturally befeeling a little uncomfortable about the place where one generally getskicked, when he sees you march in. He will expect you to open out onthat subject, so if I were you I'd take the natural line of country anddo what he expects."
"Including the kicking?"
Carrington laughed.
"Keep him waiting for that. Spin it out; that's your job to-night."
"I wish it were more than talking!" said Ned.
"Well," drawled Carrington, "it may lead to something more amusing. Whoknows? You haven't bought your own gun, I suppose? Take mine."
He handed him the same little article he had taken out the night before,and Ned's eye gleamed.
"What!" said he. "That kind of gun once more? This reminds me of oldtimes!"
"It's a mere precaution," said the other. "Don't count on using it!Remember, you're going to visit the most respectable citizen of thetown--perhaps on a wild goose errand."
"I guess not," said Ned quietly.
"We daren't assume anything. I don't want to make a fool of myself, andno more do you, I take it."
"I see," said Ned, with a nod. "Well, I'll keep him in his chair foryou."
"That's it."
They were walking quickly through the silent town under the windy nightsky. It was a dark boisterous evening, not inviting for strollers, andthey scarcely passed a soul till they were in the quiet road where thevilla stood. There, from the shadows of a gateway, two figures moved outto meet them, and Cromarty recognised Superintendent Sutherland and oneof his constables. The two saluted in silence and fell in behind. Theyeach carried, he noticed, something long-shaped wrapped up loosely insacking.
"What have they got there?" he asked.
"Prosaic instruments," smiled Carrington. "I won't tell you more forfear the gamble doesn't come off."
"Like the sensation before one proposes, I suppose," said Ned. "Well,going by that, the omens ought to be all right."
They turned in through Simon's gates and then the four stopped.
"We part here," whispered Carrington. "Good luck!"
"Same to you," said Ned briefly, and strode up the drive.
As he came out into the gravel sweep before the house, he looked hardinto the darkness of the garden, but beyond the tossing shapes of trees,there was not a sign of movement.
"Mr. Rattar in?" he enquired. "Sitting in the library I suppose? Take meright to him. Cromarty's my name."
"Mr. Cromarty to see you, sir," announced Mary, and she was startled tosee the master's sudden turn in his chair and the look upon his face.
"Whether he was feared or whether he was angered, I canna rightly say,"she told cook, "but anyway he looked fair mad like!"
"Good evening," said Ned.
His voice was restrained and dry, and as he spoke he strode across theroom and seated himself deliberately in the arm chair on the side of thefire opposite to the lawyer.
Simon had banished that first look which Mary saw, but there remained inhis eyes something more than their usual cold stare. Each day sinceCarrington came seemed to have aged his face and changed it for theworse: a haggard, ugly, malicious face it seemed to his visitor lookinghard at it to-night. His only greeting was a briefer grunt thanordinary.
"I daresay you can guess what's brought me here," said Ned.
The lawyer rapped out his first words jerkily.
"No. I can't."
"Try three guesses," suggested his visitor. "Come now, number one----?"
For a moment Simon was silent, but to-night he could not hide theworking of that face which usually hid his thoughts so effectually. Itwas plain he hesitated what line to take.
"You have seen Miss Farmond, I hear," he said.
"You're on the scent," said his visitor encouragingly. "Have anothergo."
"You believe her story."
"I do."
"It's false."
Ned stared at him very hard and then he spoke deliberately.
"I'm wondering," said he.
"Wondering what?" asked Simon.
"Whether a horse whip or the toe of a shooting boot is the best cure foryour complaint."
The lawyer shrank back into his chair.
"Do you threaten me?" he jerked out. "Be careful!"
"If I threatened you I'd certainly do what I threatened," said Ned. "Sofar I'm only wondering. Where did you learn to lie, Mr. Rattar?"
The lawyer made no answer at all. His mind seemed concentrated onguessing the other's probable actions.
"Out with it, man! I've met some derned good liars in my time, but youbeat the lot. I'm anxious to know where you learned the trick, that'sall."
"Why do you believe her more than me?" asked Simon.
"Because you've been found out lying before. That was a pretty stiff oneabout your engaging Carrington, wasn't it?"
Simon was quite unable to control his violent start, and his face turnedwhiter.
"I--I didn't say I did," he stammered.
"Well," said Ned, "I admit I wasn't there to hear you, but I knowCarrington made you put your foot fairly in it just by way of helpinghim to size you up, and he got your size right enough too."
"Then----" began Simon, and stopped and changed it into: "What doesCarrington suspect--er--accuse me of?"
Ned stared at him for several seconds without speaking, and thisprocedure seemed to disconcert the lawyer more than anything had doneyet.
"What--what does Carrington mean?" he repeated.
"He means you've lied, and he believes Miss Farmond, and he believes SirMalcolm, and he believes me, and he puts you down as a pretty bad egg.What did you expect to be accused of?"
Simon could no more hide his relief to-night than he could hide hisfears.
"Only of what you have told me--only of course of what you say! But Ican explain. In good time I can explain."
It was at that moment that the door opened sharply and the start thelawyer gave showed the state of his nerves after Mr. Cromarty'shandling. Mary MacLean stood in the doorway, her face twitching.
"What's the matter?" snapped her master.
"Please, sir, there are men in the garden!" she cried.
The lawyer leapt to his feet.
"Men in the garden!" he cried, and there was a note in his voice whichstartled even tough Ned Cromarty. "What are they doing?"
"I don't know, sir. It sounded almost as if they was digging."
Simon swayed for an instant and grasped the back of his chair. Then in amuffled voice he muttered:
"I'm going to see!"
He had scarcely made a step towards the door when Cromarty was on hisfeet too.
"Steady!" he cried. "Get out there, and shut the door!"
The towering form and formidable voice sent Mary out with a shut doorbetween them almost as the command was off his tongue. A couple ofstrides and he had got the lawyer by the shoulder and pulled him back.
"Sit down!" he commanded.
Simon turned on him with a new expression. The terror had passed awayand he stood there now as the sheer beast at bay.
"Damn you!" he muttered, and turned his back for a moment.
The next, his hand rose and simultaneously Ned's arm shot out and gothim by the wrist, while the shock of his onslaught drove the man backand down into his chair. Though Simon was tough and stoutly built, hewas as a child in the hands of his adversary. A sharp twist of the wristwas followed by an exclamation of pain and the thud of something heavyon the floor. Ned stooped and picked up the globular glass match boxthat had stood on the table. For a few moments he stared at it in deadsilence, balancing it in his hands. It was like a small cannon ball forconcentrated weight. Then in a curious voice he asked:
"Is this the first time you have
used this?"
Simon made no reply. His face was dead white now, but dogged and grim,and his mouth stayed tight as a trap. Ned replaced the match box on thetable, and planted himself before the fire.
"Nothing to say?" he asked, and Simon said nothing.
They remained like this for minute after minute; not a movement in theroom and the booming of the wind the only sound. And then camefootsteps on the gravel and the ringing of a bell.
"We'll probably learn something now," said Ned, but the other still saidnothing, and only a quick glance towards the door gave a hint of histhoughts.
There was no announcement this time. Superintendent Sutherland enteredfirst, then the constable, and Carrington last. The superintendent wentstraight up to the lawyer, his large face preternaturally solemn.Touching him on the shoulder he said:
"I arrest you in the King's name!"
The man in the chair half started up and then fell back again.
"What for?" he asked huskily.
"The murder of Simon Rattar."
The lawyer took it as one who had seen the sword descending, but not soNed Cromarty.
"Of Simon Rattar!" he shouted. "What the--then who the devil is this?"
Carrington answered. He spoke with his usual easy smile, but histriumphant eye betrayed his heart.
"The superintendent has omitted part of the usual formalities," he said."This person should have been introduced as Mr. George Rattar."
"George!" gasped Ned. "But I thought he was dead!"
"So did I," said Carrington, "but he wasn't."
"What proof have you of this story?" demanded the man in the chairsuddenly.
"We have just dug up your brother's body from that flower bed," saidCarrington quietly. "Do you recognise his ring?"
He held up a gold signet ring, and the lawyer fell back in his chair.
"But look here!" exclaimed Ned, "what about Sir Reginald's murder? Hedid that too, I suppose!"
Carrington nodded.
"We hope to add that to his account in a day or two. This is enough tobe going on with, but as a matter of fact we have nearly enough evidencenow to add the other charge."
"I can add one bit," said Ned, picking up the match box. "He has justtried to do me in with this little thing, and I take it, it was thethird time of using."
Carrington weighed it in his hand, and then said to the prisoner:
"You put it in the end of a stocking, I suppose?"
The man looked up at him with a new expression in his eye. If it werenot a trace of grim humour, it was hard to say what else it could be.
"Get me a drink," he said huskily, nodding towards the tantalus on theside table, "and I'll tell you the whole damned yarn. My God, I'm dry asa damned bone!"
"Give me the key of the tantalus," said Carrington promptly.
But the superintendent seemed somewhat taken aback.
"Anything you say may be used against you," he reminded the prisoner.
"You know enough to swing me, anyhow," said Rattar, "but I'd like you toknow that I didn't really mean to do it. I want that drink firstthough!"
He took the glass of whisky and water and as he raised it to his lips,that same curious look came back into his eye.
"Here's to the firm of S. and G. Rattar, and may their clients be asdamned as themselves!" he said with a glance at Cromarty, and finishedthe drink at a draught.
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