The Search Party/Chapter 22

T eight o'clock Mr. Goddard, who had enjoyed some fried bacon and a bottle of porter in the telegraph office, began to feel surprise at the prolonged absence of Sergeant Farrelly. It was all very well to go slowly to Rosivera and to return without undue hurry, but it was hard to imagine how eight hours could possibly be occupied in travelling sixteen miles. He sent Susy Lizzie, who remained in attendance on him, to call her uncle.

"I'm doing the best I can," said Jimmy, "to keep them quiet; but they'll be out after you in spite of me soon. I left herself and Bridgy talking to them; but what use are they against the four? And the doctor's young lady is the worst of them."

"It's not the ladies I'm bothered about now," said Mr. Goddard. "Why the devil isn't Sergeant Farrelly back? What's keeping him?"

"Faith, I don't know, unless maybe he'd be in dread!"

"Nonsense. I told him not to hurry, but I didn't tell him to stay out all night."

"It's queer, so it is," said Jimmy. "What would you think now of sending Constable Moriarty out a bit along the road to look and see if there's e'er a sign of them coming?" "I'll go myself," said Mr. Goddard.

"I wouldn't say," said Jimmy, "but what it might be just as well if you did. The ladies is sure to be here in a couple of minutes now. I can't keep them."

Mr. Goddard walked a mile along the road towards Rosivera, and then sat down on a ditch. There was no sign of Sergeant Farrelly. At nine o'clock he got up, and walked another mile and sat down again. Still there was no sign of the missing policemen. He walked a third mile and once more waited. He was puzzled and began to be uneasy. He turned and walked back towards Clonmore. Half a mile outside the town he climbed the demesne wall and crossed an angle of the deer park to the Castle. It was a quarter past ten when he reached the door.

He found Lord Manton in the library with a book in his hand and a glass of whisky and soda water on the arm of his chair. There was a pile of cigarette ends on the tray which stood within reach.

"Well, Goddard," he said, "I suppose you've tucked all your ladies up in bed and come up here for a quiet smoke. You deserve it."

"No," said Mr. Goddard; "I've come to consult you. I don't understand"

"Surely nobody else has bolted?"

"Sergeant Farrelly and the constable have not returned from Rosivera."

"Dear me! I always heard that these things were infectious, like measles. One suicide, half a dozen suicides. We appear to be in for an epidemic of bolting. But I'd never have suspected the sergeant. He seemed such a solid sort of man, not the least hysterical; but you can never tell. I hope you won't vanish to-morrow, Goddard. If you feel it coming on you, you'd better put yourself under arrest at once. Was the sergeant a married man?"

"No, he wasn't."

"Then there'll be no widow to make lamentation in his case. That's a good job for you, Goddard. I don't see how you could have got on with another woman running round after you. What about the constable?"

"He's not married either. He's not long enough in the service."

"Poor fellow!" said Lord Manton. "I suppose now that this will ruin his prospects, even if he comes back."

"Lord Manton," said Mr. Goddard, "what do you know about that tenant of yours at Rosivera?"

"Surely you're not coming round to Miss Blow's murder theory, are you?"

"I don't know. It's a very queer business. Is Red—that's the man's name, isn't it—respectable?"

"I don't know. I never saw the man in my life. I know nothing about him except that he paid his rent and came here in a motor-car. That looks as if he had money, doesn't it?"

"I don't understand it," said Mr. Goddard. "The sergeant and Cole certainly went to Rosivera to-day. I don't see what was to stop them getting there. They weren't likely to lose their way. They certainly haven't come back."

"What does Jimmy O'Loughlin say? I suppose you've consulted him."

"Jimmy thinks," said Mr. Goddard, "that the sergeant's afraid to come back on account of Miss Blow. But that's all rot, of course."

"I'm not at all sure that Jimmy's not right. He's a very shrewd man, Jimmy O'Loughlin. I shouldn't wonder a bit" "But what the deuce am I to do?"

"I'll tell you what it is," said Lord Manton. "We'll make a descent in force on Rosivera to-morrow. You shall collect all the police you possibly can, fifty of them, if there are fifty available. We'll take all the ladies interested in the matter in my waggonette. Jimmy O'Loughlin and I will accompany the army in the capacity of civil magistrates, each of us armed with a Riot Act and a writ of Habeas Corpus. We'll make that fellow Red sit up if he's been at any games."

"I really think we'll have to. It seems very absurd, but what else are we to do? I've been harried with telegrams from everybody in Dublin Castle all day. The Inspector-General is coming down here to-morrow, though I don't see what on earth he thinks he'll be able to do."

"We'll forestall him," said Lord Manton. "He can't possibly get here before noon. We'll start at eleven sharp. We'll have the mystery, whatever it is, probed to its inmost recesses before he gets at it. The whole credit will be yours, Goddard."

"I'll make any one that likes a present of the credit."

"In the meanwhile," said Lord Manton, "you'd better sleep here. I expect Jimmy O'Loughlin's hotel is pretty well full up."

"Thanks," said Mr. Goddard. "The fact is, I don't particularly care about going back to the village to-night."

"Will they be waiting up for you?"

"They will."

"Miss Blow," said Lord Manton, "is a wonderful woman."

"She's not bad looking," said Mr. Goddard magnanimously, "but she's rather"

"I know what you're going to say—vehement, wasn't that it? A good deal of life force about her? I quite agree with you. Now, what do you think? Supposing it turns out that the man Red has really been up to any kind of tricks; supposing he's engaged in a business of kidnapping dispensary doctors, blacksmiths, Members of Parliament and policemen, for the purpose of shipping them off as slaves to the Sultan of Zanzibar. I don't say for certain that that's exactly what he's doing. I don't know yet. But if he's at anything of the sort it would serve him jolly well right if we made him marry Miss Blow." "He wouldn't do it."

"He might. He seems to be a man of adventurous disposition. If he doesn't like her, we could offer him Miss Farquharson."

"I should think he'd refuse them both. He'd see Miss Farquharson, and he'd be absolutely certain to hear Miss Blow."

"I think we could put pressure on him," said Lord Manton. "In fact, it would be a choice for him between marrying and a criminal prosecution. A man can't kidnap people in this wholesale sort of way without suffering for it. He'll understand that when we put it to him. But you've had an exhausting day, Goddard, and I dare say you'd like to toddle up to bed. Wilkins will leave you whatever you want. We'll have a great time to-morrow, raiding Rosivera."