The Search Party/Chapter 19

ORD MANTON'S waggonette was a roomy vehicle, used chiefly for picnic parties in the summer, when Lady Flavia and her children were at Clonmore Castle. The four ladies, Lord Manton, and Mr. Goddard packed themselves into it quite comfortably. Lord Manton gave his order to the coachman.

"Down to the village, Thomas, and stop at the hotel."

Miss Blow was alert and suspicious. "Why the hotel?" she asked.

"I'll go to the police barrack if you like," said Lord Manton. "I only suggested the hotel because it is a convenient central sort of place with a room in it large enough to hold the whole party."

"The hotel is decidedly the most suitable place," said Miss Farquharson.

She was beginning to dislike Miss Blow, whose manner struck her as aggressive to a degree quite unsuitable in a young woman. On the other hand, she highly approved of Lord Manton, who was most courteous and had given her tea, which she wanted badly.

"Besides," said Mr. Goddard, "we shall be sure of seeing Jimmy O'Loughlin at the hotel."

"I don't see why Mr. O'Loughlin should be mixed up in our business," said Miss Blow.

"Nor do I," said Mr. Goddard. "I've always protested against the way he's dragged in. But everybody does it. Sergeant Farrelly can't say a simple sentence without quoting Jimmy as his authority; and you did the same thing yourself repeatedly when you were elaborating your theory of murder."

"Besides," said Lord Manton, "Jimmy O'Loughlin is a magistrate. He's really far more of a magistrate than I am."

"If he's a magistrate," said Miss Farquharson, "we ought to consult him."

"He's a liar," said Miss Blow definitely.

"Really!" said Miss Farquharson.

Then she turned her back on Miss Blow, who sat next her, and looked with great interest at the horses. Mr. Goddard leaned across the waggonette and whispered to Lord Manton.

"What do you mean to do when we get to the hotel?" "Hush!" said Lord Manton.

Miss Blow's eyes were fixed on him, and he felt that confidences were dangerous.

Jimmy O'Loughlin greeted the party at the door of his hotel. He was surprised to see them. He was still more surprised when Lord Manton demanded the use of a private sitting-room.

"There's the commercial room," he said, "and there's the drawing-room. You can have the two of them if you like, for there isn't a soul stopping in the house this minute barring the doctor's young lady. It'll be better, maybe, for you to take the commercial room by reason of there being a key to the door, so as you'll be able to lock it if you heard Bridgy coming along the passage."

"What are you going to do now?" said Mr. Goddard, catching Lord Manton by the arm, as the ladies entered the commercial room.

"I'm going to persuade Jimmy O'Loughlin to sign the warrant, if I possibly can," said Lord Manton.

"He'll not do it. Jimmy O'Loughlin's not a born fool."

"Then I'm afraid," said Lord Manton, "that you'll have to arrest the man Red without a warrant."

"I won't," said Mr. Goddard.

"Send the sergeant, then."

"I won't."

"Couldn't you send the sergeant and a constable and tell them to inquire civilly of Mr. Red whether he'd seen anything of the Members of Parliament? It's quite a natural thing to ask. They passed his gate yesterday, and he might have seen them. We could give the sergeant some sort of a blue paper in the presence of Miss Blow and pretend that he was going to make the arrest."

"That's no good," said Mr. Goddard. "She said she'd go and see the arrest made herself, and she'll do it."

"Send the men on bicycles," said Lord Manton, "then she won't be able to keep up with them."

"The objection to that is that she has a bicycle herself. I don't know how she got it, but she rode over on it from Ballymoy this morning. Moriarty might get ahead of her, but she'd knock spots out of the sergeant in a race; he's fat."

"Jimmy O'Loughlin," said Lord Manton, "come here."

Jimmy was leaning in a careless attitude against the doorpost of his hotel. He appeared to be entirely uninterested in what was going on, and was surprised when Lord Manton called him.

"Jimmy O'Loughlin," said Lord Manton, "Mr. Goddard is sending a couple of police over to Rosivera to see if there's any news there of the gentlemen that have got lost, and he doesn't want Miss Blow to go with them. Can you think of any way of stopping her?"

"Her mind's made up to go," said Mr. Goddard.

Jimmy meditated on the problem.

"If so be," he said at last, "that I could get the boots off of her, and had them hid in the haggard where she wouldn't find them easy, she couldn't go."

"She could not," said Mr. Goddard. "But how do you propose to get them off her?"

"I was thinking," said Jimmy, "that if his lordship here would draw down the subject of boots, and was to say that all boots was the better of being cleaned, and then if I was to say that B ridgy was doing nothing particular and would be glad to give a rub to any lady's boots that liked, that maybe she'd take them off herself." "If that's the best you can do in the way of a suggestion," said Mr. Goddard, "you might as well have kept it to yourself. Is it likely she'd take off her boots at this hour of the day to please you?"

"It wouldn't be to please me," said Jimmy; "it would be his lordship that would ask her at the latter end." "I'm afraid," said Lord Manton, " she wouldn't do it for me. She doesn't like me. You'd think she would, but as a matter of fact she doesn't."

"How would it be," said Jimmy, "if I was to have a telegram for her? The young lady that minds the post-office is a niece of my own. It might be in it that it was from the doctor himself and came from New York. That would turn her mind away from the police."

"She wouldn't believe it," said Mr. Goddard. "Not if you were to go in and swear to it on a Bible. She says you're an awful liar."

"Begad, then, I don't know what it would be best to do."

Sergeant Farrelly, Constable Cole, and Constable Moriarty arrived at the door. They had been summoned by Lord Manton's coachman after he had deposited the party at the hotel. The situation was explained to them by Mr. Goddard. Sergeant Farrelly expressed perfect readiness to go to Rosivera and make any inquiries that were considered necessary. When asked whether he could escape without Miss Blow, he looked blank. As a matter of fact, Miss Blow had opened the door of the commercial room and was watching the party in the hall with suspicious eyes.

"Unless," said Constable Cole, "we could hit on some kind of a stratagem."

"You and your stratagems," said the sergeant; "we've heard enough of them."

"If you have a stratagem in your mind," said Mr. Goddard, "trot it out. But there's no use your suggesting taking her boots, or sending her a bogus telegram. We've discussed those two plans already."

"Don't you give heed to him," said the sergeant. "Stratagems is never out of his mouth, and there's no sense at all in what he says."

"How would it be," said Constable Cole, "if the sergeant and myself was to go off to Rosivera on our bikes?"

"That's been suggested before," said Mr. Goddard, "andit's no good. She has a bicycle herself, and she'd go with you."

"Sure he knows she has a bicycle," said Jimmy O'Loughlin. "Didn't he see her riding in on it this morning, the time you were off up at the Castle? And didn't he remark on its being mighty like the machine that the sergeant's wife beyond in Ballymoy is after buying?"

"I did," said Constable Cole.

"If you knew all that," said Mr. Goddard, "what on earth was the good of your suggesting that you and the sergeant should go on bicycles? Don't you know she'd be after you?" "Stratagems!" said Sergeant Farrelly scornfully. "Do you call them stratagems?"

"How would it be," said Constable Cole, "if you was to go in to her and tell her that it was Constable Moriarity that was to go with the sergeant to Rosivera?"

"I dislike telling gratuitous and entirely useless lies," said Mr. Goddard. " She simply wouldn't believe me."

"She'd believe Moriarty," said Cole. "She has a great wish for Moriarty since the day he took her for a drive on Jimmy O'Loughlin's car. If Moriarty was to go in as soon as ever you were done telling her, and was to say he'd be glad if she'd go along with him"

"I couldn't say the like to a young lady," said Moriarty. "I'd be ashamed."

"Be quiet, Moriarty," said Mr. Goddard. "And let's hear the rest of the stratagem."

"And if he was to say at the same time" said Cole.

"If who was to say? " asked Lord Manton. "I'm getting mixed."

"Constable Moriarty," said Cole; "if he was to say that it would be a pleasure to him to go round to the yard and get her bicycle for her the way she'd be ready to go with him and the sergeant"

"I see," said Lord Manton.

"She'd go with him to the yard," said Mr. Goddard. "Don't forget that."

"She would," said Cole, "and on the way there she'd see Moriarty's bicycle and another, as it might be the sergeant's."

"But of course it wouldn't be the sergeant's," said Lord Manton.

"It would not. The sergeant and myself might be off by that time a good bit along the road to Rosivera. But the bicycle she'd see would have a look about it as if it might be the sergeant's. It could have his cape strapped on it and maybe his name somewhere about so as she'd notice it."

"It's just possible," said Mr. Goddard, "that if she has the sort of confidence you say she has in Moriarty she'll be taken in for five minutes; but at the end of that time she'll be off after you."

"I wouldn't wonder," said Cole, "but the back tyre of her own bicycle might be flat."

He looked at Jimmy O'Loughlin as he spoke. His face was entirely devoid of any expression, but Jimmy was a man of quick wit.

"Bridgy?" he said.

"Bridgy'd do," he said.

"Do what? " said Lord Manton. "I'm getting mixed again."

"With the blade of a knife?" said Jimmy O'Loughlin.

"That, or a three-pronged fork," said Cole, "unbeknown to any but herself."

"It could be done," said Jimmy O'Loughlin, "and Bridgy's the girl for the job."

"Constable Moriarty," said Cole, "would offer to mend it for her, while they'd be waiting for the sergeant, who'd be down at the barrack getting the handcuffs."

"Oiling them," said Lord Manton.

"Oiling or such," said Cole.

"Where's the use of oiling handcuffs?" said the sergeant.

"Shut up, sergeant," said Mr. Goddard. "That's part of the stratagem."

"Constable Moriarty," said Cole, "would be talking to her pleasant and agreeable the way he'd distract her mind and him mending the tyre. It's himself knows how to talk to a young lady."

"I do not," said Moriarty. "She'd be laughing at me."

"She'll not laugh," said Mr. Goddard. "That's one thing you may feel quite sure about. Whatever else she does, she'll not laugh."

"I'm not fit to talk to her," said Moriarty.

"You're not fit to mend a tyre either," said Cole; "mind that now. When you have the hole there is in it with a patch on it, and you're putting back the cover on the wheel you'd nip the inner tube so as there be a bit took out of it."

"Do you take me for a fool?" said Moriarty. "Haven't I mended"

"I'll take you for a fool," said Mr. Goddard, "if you don't do exactly what you're told."

"After that," said Cole, "you'll have to mend the tyre again; and I'd say, if you're any kind of good at all, that by the time you've done with it it'll be beyond the help of man in the way of holding the air."

"It's a great stratagem," said Lord Manton; "I never heard a better."

"It's what I was reading in a book one time," said Cole. "You know the book, sergeant"

"I've heard you speaking about it," said the sergeant, "many a time."

"Well," said Cole, "that stratagem was in it. It was a young fellow that was off with a girl that he was wishing to marry and her father was after them. It was bicycles they had. And the young fellow gave half a crown to the man in the hotel to do the like to the old chap's bicycle the way he'd get off with the girl."

"Whether the idea is absolutely original or not," said Lord Manton, "you deserve the greatest credit for applying it to this particular case."

"It was in my mind," said Cole, "and I just said to myself that maybe, if I didn't forget it, it might come in handy some day."

"At the latter end," said Moriarity, "she'll be asking where the sergeant is."

"At the latter end," said Mr. Goddard, "when the bicycle's quite past mending, you can tell her that he was obliged to start to Rosivera without her and take Cole along with him."

"She'll have the face ate off me when I do," said Moriarty.

"If she does," said Mr. Goddard, "it won't make much matter to you or any one else. The new one you'll get can't be worse to look at than the one you have."

"I don't know," said Sergeant Farrelly, "how will the sergeant's wife at Ballymoy like having them tricks played with her bicycle. She's a cousin of my own."

He had never had a high opinion of Cole's stratagems, and it pained him to have to listen to the praise bestowed on this one.

"She can get a new tyre," said Mr. Goddard; "and serve her jolly well right for lending her bicycle to Miss Blow. She ought to have had more sense."

A few minutes later Lord Manton and Mr. Goddard entered the commercial room of the hotel. They had with them a warrant for the arrest of Theodore Guy Red of Rosivera on a charge of wilful murder. They spread this out on the table and invited Miss Blow to inspect it. She did so, scanning every line carefully.

"It's not signed," she said. "No," said Lord Manton. "We thought you'd prefer to have it signed in your presence. Kindly ring the bell, Mr. Goddard."

"What for?" said Miss Blow.

"I want a pen and ink, for one thing," said Lord Manton. "And I want Jimmy O'Loughlin. He's going to sign it too."

Miss Blow sniffed, but she made no objection to the second signature.

"Now," said Lord Manton, when he and Jimmy O'Loughlin had signed their names, "call in the sergeant and the constable."

Mr. Goddard opened the door and summoned the police. They marched into the room and stood upright, rigid and impressive, near the door. They made a great impression on Miss Farquharson. Sergeant Farrelly, in particular, struck her as a kind of embodiment of the spirit of law and order. Mr. Goddard held the warrant in his hand and addressed the men.

"Sergeant Farrelly," he said, "will take this warrant, proceed at once to Rosivera, and effect the arrest of Theodore Guy Red, the person named in it."

He looked round as he finished his sentence, and noticed with pleasure that Miss Blow was listening intently to what he said.

"Constable Moriarty," he went on, "will accompany the sergeant, and will be prepared to act vigorously in the event of the use of force being necessary to effect the capture of the prisoner."

He looked round again at Miss Blow. Her face was beginning to assume quite an amiable expression.

"With a view to saving time," said Mr. Goddard, "the police will proceed to Rosivera on bicycles, starting as soon as possible. Sergeant Farrelly, is your bicycle ready?"

"It is, sir," said the sergeant. "It's at the door of the hotel this minute, and my cape is strapped on to the handle bars."

"Is Constable Moriarty's bicycle ready?" asked Mr. Goddard.

"It is, sir," said the sergeant.

"The police," said Mr. Goddard, "will be accompanied on this expedition by Miss Blow. Every effort, consistent with the effecting of the arrest, will be made by the police to protect Miss Blow in the event of riot."

"It will, sir."

"By the way, Miss Blow," said Mr. Goddard, "have you got a bicycle?"

"Yes," said Miss Blow. "I borrowed one this morning in Ballymoy. It's in the hotel yard now."

"It's in the stable," said Jimmy O'Loughlin. "I'm after telling Bridgy to give it a bit of a rub over with a soft cloth the way it'll be decent like, when the young lady wants it."

"Sergeant Farrelly," said Mr. Goddard, "will now proceed to the barrack and provide himself with handcuffs."

"Carefully oiled," said Lord Manton.

"He will be accompanied by Constable Cole, who will remain on guard at the barrack. Having obtained the handcuffs, Sergeant Farrelly will return to the hotel and join the rest of the party. Constable Moriarty will proceed to the back yard, take Miss Blow's bicycle and wheel it round to the front door, so that everything will be in readiness for an immediate start when Sergeant Farrelly returns with the handcuffs."

"I can get my bicycle for myself," said Miss Blow.

"It would be too much trouble for you, miss," said Jimmy O'Loughlin. " But of course, if the young lady's doubtful about the way Moriarty might handle it, she's right to go. It's a good bicycle," he added, "though I'd say that maybe the back tyre of it was a bit worn."

Miss Blow, accompanied by Moriarty, who looked extremely uncomfortable, left the room. Sergeant Farrelly and Constable Cole marched rapidly down the street towards the barrack.

"I think, ladies," said Lord Manton, "that Mr. Goddard and I will leave you for the present. We shall see you this evening again, so we need not say good-bye."

"That," said Lord Manton to Mr. Goddard as they walked together across the deer park, "was a good stratagem. I don't altogether envy Moriarty when it comes to its climax; but Cole certainly deserves promotion."

"I don't see that it's much use in reality," said Mr. Goddard. "It's only putting off the evil day, you know. When the sergeant comes back from Rosivera we'll have the whole thing to do over again."

"You told him not to hurry, I hope," said Lord Manton.

"I told him to spend as long over the job as he possibly could. I told him not to be back before six this evening at the very earliest. But what's the good of that? He's bound to come back some time."

"Still, it's always so much time gained. We may hear something of the missing men before then. You'll telegraph all over the country, of course."

"I'll go back at once," said Mr. Goddard, "and take entire possession of the telegraph office."

"Come up and have some luncheon first. The afternoon will be time enough for the telegrams."