Part 13 (1/2)

The fat adventurer hopped hurriedly across the threshold, Kirkwood following. The woman shut the door, and turned with back to it, nodding significantly at Kirkwood as her eyes met Calendar's.

”Well, well?” snapped the latter impatiently, turning to the young man.

But Kirkwood was thinking quickly. For the present he contented himself with a deliberate statement of fact: ”Miss Calendar has disappeared.” It gave him an instant's time ... ”There's something d.a.m.ned fishy!” he told himself. ”These two are playing at cross-purposes. Calendar's no fool; he's evidently a crook, to boot. As for the woman, she's had her eyes open for a number of years. The main thing's Dorothy. She didn't vanish of her own initiative. And Mrs. Hallam knows, or suspects, more than she's going to tell. I don't think she wants Dorothy found. Calendar does. So do I. Ergo: I'm for Calendar.”

”Disappeared?” Calendar was barking at him. ”How? When? Where?”

”Within ten minutes,” said Kirkwood. ”Here, let's get it straight.... With her permission I brought her here in a four-wheeler.” He was carefully suppressing all mention of Frognall Street, and in Calendar's glance read approval of the elision. ”She didn't want to get out, unless you were here.

I asked for you. The maid showed me up-stairs. I left your daughter in the cab--and by the way, I hadn't paid the driver. That's funny, too! Perhaps six or seven minutes after I came in Mrs. Hallam found out that Miss Calendar was with me and wanted to ask her in. When we got to the door--no cab. There you have it all.”

”Thanks--it's plenty,” said Calendar dryly. He bent his head in thought for an instant, then looked up and fixed Mrs. Hallam with an unprejudiced eye, ”I say!” he demanded explosively. ”There wasn't any one here that knew--eh?”

Her fine eyes wavered and fell before his; and Kirkwood remarked that her under lip was curiously drawn in.

”I heard a man leave as Mrs. Hallam joined me,” he volunteered helpfully, and with a suspicion of malice. ”And after that--I paid no attention at the time--it seems to me I did hear a cab in the street--”

”Ow?” interjected Calendar, eying the woman steadfastly and employing an exclamation of combined illumination and inquiry more typically British than anything Kirkwood had yet heard from the man.

For her part, the look she gave Kirkwood was sharp with fury. It was more; it was a mistake, a flaw in her diplomacy; for Calendar intercepted it.

Unceremoniously he grasped her bare arm with his fat hand.

”Tell me who it was,” he demanded in an ugly tone.

She freed herself with a twist, and stepped back, a higher color in her cheeks, a flash of anger in her eyes.

”Mr. Mulready,” she retorted defiantly. ”What of that?”

”I wish I was sure,” declared the fat adventurer, exasperated. ”As it is, I bet a dollar you've put your foot in it, my lady. I warned you of that blackguard.... There! The mischief's done; we won't row over it. One moment.” He begged it with a wave of his hand; stood pondering briefly, fumbled for his watch, found and consulted it. ”It's the barest chance,” he muttered. ”Perhaps we can make it.”

”What are you going to do?” asked the woman.

”Give _Mister_ Mulready a run for his money. Come along, Kirkwood; we haven't a minute. Mrs. Hallam, permit us....” She stepped aside and he brushed past her to the door. ”Come, Kirkwood!”

He seemed to take Kirkwood's company for granted; and the young man was not inclined to argue the point. Meekly enough he fell in with Calendar on the sidewalk. Mrs. Hallam followed them out. ”You won't forget?” she called tentatively.

”I'll 'phone you if we find out anything.” Calendar jerked the words unceremoniously over his shoulder as, linking arms with Kirkwood, he drew him swiftly along. They heard her shut the door; instantly Calendar stopped. ”Look here, did Dorothy have a--a small parcel with her?”

”She had a gladstone bag.”

”Oh, the devil, the devil!” Calendar started on again, muttering distractedly. As they reached the corner he disengaged his arm. ”We've a minute and a half to reach Charing Cross Pier; and I think it's the last boat. You set the pace, will you? But remember I'm an oldish man and--and fat.”

They began to run, the one easily, the other lumbering after like an old-fas.h.i.+oned square-rigged s.h.i.+p paced by a liner.

Beneath the railway bridge, in front of the Underground station, the cab-rank cried them on with sardonic view-halloos; and a bobby remarked them with suspicion, turning to watch as they plunged round the corner and across the wide Embankment.

The Thames appeared before them, a river of ink on whose burnished surface lights swam in long winding streaks and oily blobs. By the floating pier a County Council steamboat strained its hawsers, snoring huskily. Bells were jingling in her engine-room as the two gained the head of the sloping gangway.

Kirkwood slapped a s.h.i.+lling down on the ticket-window ledge. ”Where to?” he cried back to Calendar.