The Black Box Part 41

"To tell you the truth," Quest replied, "my business is a little urgent."

"Glad to hear you've got that fellow Craig," Mr. Hardaway continued.

"Ridiculous the way he managed to slip through our fingers. I understand you've got him all right now, though?"

"He is safe enough," Quest declared, "but to tell you the truth, I'm worried about another little affair."

"Go on," the other invited.

"My a.s.sistant, a young lady, Miss Lenora Macdougal, has disappeared! She and I and Professor Ashleigh left the steamer at Plymouth and travelled up in the boat train. It was stopped at Hamblin Road for the Professor and myself, and Miss Macdougal came on to London. She was staying at Clifford's Hotel in Payne Street for the night, and then going on to an aunt. Well, I've found that aunt. She was expecting the girl but the girl never appeared. I have been to the hotel where she spent the night before last, and I find that she left there at two o'clock and left word that she would send for her luggage. She didn't arrive at her aunt's, and the luggage is still uncalled for."

[Ill.u.s.tration: QUEST FIGHTS HIS WAY TO THE GIRL HE LOVES.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: AS THE PROFESSOR EXPLAINED THE CELLAR'S HISTORY TO QUEST, THE STONE CROSS CLOSED ON THE FRIGHTENED SERVANT.]

The Inspector was at first only politely interested. It probably occurred to him that young ladies have been known before now to disappear from their guardians for a few hours without serious results.

"Where did this aunt live?" he enquired.

"Number 17, Princes' Court Road, West Kensington," Quest replied. "She had just moved there from Elsmere Road, Hampstead. I went first to Hampstead.

Lenora had been there and learnt her aunt's correct address in West Kensington. I followed on to West Kensington and found that her aunt was still awaiting her."

A new interest seemed suddenly to have crept into Hardaway's manner.

"Let me see," he said, "if she left Clifford's Hotel about two, she would have been at Hampstead about half-past two. She would waste a few minutes in making enquiries, then she probably left Hampstead for West Kensington, say, at a quarter to three."

"Somewhere between those two points," Quest pointed out, "she has disappeared."

"Give me at once a description of the young lady," Mr. Hardaway demanded.

Quest drew a photograph from his pocket and pa.s.sed it silently over. The official glanced at it and down at some papers which lay before him. Then he looked at the clock.

"Mr. Quest," he said, "it is just possible that your visit here has been an exceedingly opportune one."

He s.n.a.t.c.hed his hat from a rack and took Quest by the arm.

"Come along with me," he continued. "We'll talk as we go."

They entered a taxi and drove off westwards.

"Mr. Quest," he went on, "for two months we have been on the track of a man and a woman whom we strongly suspect of having decoyed half a dozen perfectly respectable young women, and s.h.i.+pped them out to South America."

"The White Slave Traffic!" Quest gasped.

"Something of the sort," Hardaway admitted. "Well, we've been closing the net around this interesting couple, and last night I had information brought to me upon which we are acting this afternoon. We've had them watched and it seems that they were sitting in a tea place about three o'clock yesterday afternoon, when a young woman entered who was obviously a stranger to London. You see, the time fits in exactly, if your a.s.sistant decided to stop on her way to Kensington and get some tea. She asked the woman at the desk the best means of getting to West Kensington without taking a taxi-cab. Her description tallies exactly with the photograph you have shown me. The woman whom my men were watching addressed her and offered to show her the way. They left the place together. My men followed them. The house has been watched ever since and we are raiding it this afternoon. You and I will just be in time."

"You've left her there since yesterday afternoon? You've left her there all night?" Quest exclaimed. "My G.o.d!"

Hardaway touched his arm soothingly.

"Don't worry, Mr. Quest," he said. "We don't want the woman alone; we want the man, too. Now the man was away. He only visits the house occasionally, and I am given to understand that he is a member of several West End clubs. When the two women entered that house yesterday afternoon, there wasn't a soul in it except servants. The woman telephoned for the man. He never turned up last night nor this morning. He arrived at that house twenty minutes ago."

Quest drew a little breath.

"It gave me a turn," he admitted. "Say, this is a slow taxi!"

The Inspector glanced out of the window.

"If this is the young lady you're looking for," he said, "you'll be in plenty of time, never fear. What I am hoping is that we may be able to catch my fellows before they try to rush the place. You understand, with your experience, Mr. Quest, that there are two things we've got to think of. We not only want to put our hand upon the guilty persons, but we want to bring the crime home to them."

"I see that," Quest a.s.sented. "How much farther is this place?"

"We're there," Hardaway told him.

He stopped the cab and they got out. A man who seemed to be strolling aimlessly along, reading a newspaper, suddenly joined them.

"Well, Dixon?" his chief exclaimed.

The man glanced around.

"I've got three men round at the back, Mr. Hardaway," he said. "It's impossible for any one to leave the place."

"Anything fresh to tell me?"

"There are two men in the place besides the governor--butler and footman, dressed in livery. They sleep out, and only come after lunch."

Hardaway paused to consider for a moment.

"Look here," Quest suggested, "they know all you, of course, and they'll never let you in until they're forced to. I'm a stranger. Let me go. I'll get in all right."

Hardaway peered around the corner of the street.

"All right," he a.s.sented. "We shall follow you up pretty closely, though."

Quest stepped back into the taxi and gave the driver a direction. When he emerged in front of the handsome grey stone house he seemed to have become completely transformed. There was a fatuous smile upon his lips. He crossed the pavement with difficulty, stumbled up the steps, and held on to the knocker with one hand while he consulted a slip of paper. He had scarcely rung the bell before a slightly parted curtain in the front room fell together, and a moment later the door was opened by a man in the livery of a butler, but with the face and physique of a prize-fighter.

"Lady of the house," Quest demanded. "Want to see the lady of the house."

Almost immediately he was conscious of a woman standing in the hall before him. She was quietly but handsomely dressed; her hair was grey; her smile, although a little peculiar, was benevolent.

"You had better come in," she invited. "Please do not stand in the doorway."

Quest, however, who heard the footsteps of the others behind him, loitered there for a moment.

"You're the lady whose name is on this piece of paper?" he demanded. "This place is all right, eh?"

"I really do not know what you mean," the woman replied coldly, "but if you will come inside, I will talk to you in the drawing-room."

Quest, as though stumbling against the front-door, had it now wide open, and in a moment the hall seemed full. The woman shrieked. The butler suddenly sprang upon the last man to enter, and sent him spinning down the steps. Almost at that instant there was a scream from upstairs. Quest took a running jump and went up the stairs four at a time. The butler suddenly s.n.a.t.c.hed the revolver from Hardaway's hand and fired blindly in front of him, missing Quest only by an inch or two.