The Black Box Part 16

Quest raised the cotton-wool. Beneath lay Mrs. Rheinholdt's necklace!

CHAPTER V

AN OLD GRUDGE

1.

Sanford Quest was smoking his after breakfast cigar with a relish somewhat affected by the measure of his perplexities. Early though it was, Lenora was already in her place, bending over her desk, and Laura, who had just arrived, was busy divesting herself of her coat and hat. Quest watched the latter impatiently.

"Well?" he asked.

Laura came forward, straightening her hair with her hands.

"No go," she answered. "I spent the evening in the club and I talked with two men who knew Craig, but I couldn't get on to anything. From all I could hear of the man, respectability is his middle name."

"That's the Professor's own idea," Quest remarked grimly. "I merely ventured to drop a hint that Craig might not be quite so immaculate as he seemed, and I never saw a man so horrified in my life. He a.s.sured me that Craig was seldom out of his sight, that he hadn't a friend in the world nor a single vicious taste."

"We're fairly up against it, boss," Laura sighed. "The best thing we can do is to get on to another job. The Rheinholdt woman has got her jewels back, or will have at noon to-day. I bet she won't worry about the thief.

Then the Professor's mouldy old skeleton was returned to him, even if it was burnt up afterwards. I should take on something fresh."

"Can't be done," Quest replied shortly. "Look here, girls, your average intellects are often apt to hit upon the truth, when a man who sees too far ahead goes wrong. Rule Craig out. Any other possible person occur to you?--Speak out, Lenora. You've something on your mind, I can see."

The girl swung around in her chair. There was a vague look of trouble upon her face.

"I'm afraid you'll laugh at me," she began tentatively.

"Won't hurt you if I do," Quest replied.

"I can't help thinking of Macdougal," Lenora continued falteringly. "He has never been recaptured, and I don't know whether he's dead or alive. He had a perfect pa.s.sion for jewels. If he is alive, he would be desperate and would attempt anything."

Quest smoked in silence for a moment.

"I guess the return of the jewels squelches the Macdougal theory," he remarked. "He wouldn't be likely to part with the stuff when he'd once got his hands on it. However, I always meant, when we had a moment's spare time, to look into that fellow's whereabouts. We'll take it on straight away. Can't do any harm."

"I know the section boss on the railway at the spot where he disappeared,"

Laura announced.

"Then just take the train down to Mountways--that's the nearest spot--and get busy with him," Quest directed. "Try and persuade him to loan us the gang's hand-car to go down the line. Lenora and I will come on in the automobile."

"Take you longer," Lenora remarked, as she moved off to put on her jacket.

"The cars do it in half an hour."

"Can't help that," Quest replied. "Mrs. Rheinholdt's coming here to identify her jewels at twelve o'clock, and I can't run any risk of there being no train back. You'd better be making good with the section boss.

Take plenty of bills with you."

"Sure! That's easy enough," Laura promised him. "I'll be waiting for you."

She hurried off and Quest commenced his own preparations. From his safe he took one of the small black lumps of explosive to which he had once before owed his life, and fitted it carefully in a small case with a coil of wire and an electric lighter. He looked at his revolver and recharged it.

Finally he rang the bell for his confidential valet.

"Ross," he asked, "who else is here to-day besides you?"

"No one to-day, sir."

"Just as well, perhaps," Quest observed. "Listen, Ross. I am going out now for an hour or two, but I shall be back at mid-day. Remember that. Mrs.

Rheinholdt and Inspector French are to be here at twelve o'clock. If by any chance I should be a few moments late, ask them to wait. And, Ross, a young woman from the Salvation Army will call too. You can give her this cheque."

Ross Brown, who was Quest's secretary-valet and general factotum, accepted the slip of paper and placed it in an envelope.

"There are no other instructions, sir?" he enquired.

"None," Quest replied. "You'll look out for the wireless, and you had better switch the through cable and telegraph communication on to headquarters. Come along, Lenora."

They left the house, entered the waiting automobile, and drove rapidly towards the confines of the city. Quest was unusually thoughtful. Lenora, on the other hand, seemed to have lost a great deal of her usual self composure. She seldom sat still for more than a moment or two together.

She was obviously nervous and excited.

"What's got hold of you, Lenora?" Quest asked her once. "You seem all fidgets."

She glanced at him apologetically.

"I can't help it," she confessed. "If you knew of the many sleepless nights I have had, of how I have racked my brain wondering what could have become of James, you wouldn't really wonder that I am excited now that there is some chance of really finding out. Often I have been too terrified to sleep."

"We very likely shan't find out a thing," Quest reminded her. "French and his lot have had a try and come to grief."

"Inspector French isn't like you, Mr. Quest," Lenora ventured.

Quest laughed bitterly.

"Just now, at any rate, we don't seem to be any great shakes," he remarked. "However, I'm glad we're on this job. Much better to find out what has become of the fellow really, if we can."

Lenora's voice suddenly grew steady. She turned round in her place and faced her companion.

"Mr. Quest," she said, "I like my work with you. You saved me from despair. Sometimes it seems to me that life now opens out an entirely new vista. Yet since this matter has been mentioned between us, let me tell you one thing. I have known no rest, night or day, since we heard of--of James's escape. I live in terror. If I have concealed it, it has been at the expense of my nerves and my strength. I think that very soon I could have gone on no longer."

Quest's only reply was a little nod. Yet, notwithstanding his imperturbability of expression, that little nod was wonderfully sympathetic. Lenora leaned back in her place well satisfied. She felt that she was understood.

By Quest's directions, the automobile was brought to a stand-still at a point where it skirted the main railway line, and close to the section house which he had appointed for his rendezvous with Laura. She had apparently seen their approach and she came out to meet them at once, accompanied by a short, thick-set man whom she introduced as Mr. Horan.

"This is Mr. Horan, the section boss," she explained.

Mr. Horan shook hands.

"Say, I've heard of you, Mr. Quest," he announced. "The young lady tells me you are some interested in that prisoner they lost off the cars near here."

"That's so," Quest admitted. "We'd like to go to the spot if we could."