The Search Party/Chapter 25

T ten o'clock next morning Jimmy O'Loughlin entered the commercial room of his hotel. Miss Blow was breakfasting by herself. Miss Farquharson, who had finished her breakfast an hour earlier, was writing letters at one end of the long table, having folded back the white cloth. Mrs. Dick and Mrs. Sanders were still in their bedrooms, mourning for their husbands.

"There's five police after coming into the town from Ballymoy," said Jimmy excitedly; "and it's what I'm after hearing from Moriarty that there's more expected."

Miss Blow looked up from her breakfast. Her face expressed irritation and incredulity.

"It's the truth I'm telling you," said Jimmy. "Begad, but Mr. Goddard's the fine man."

"You told us last night," said Miss Farquharson, "that Mr. Goddard had vanished like every one else. Has he appeared again?

"He never was lost, thanks be to God! He was up with Lord Manton beyond at the Castle, devising plans and concocting stratagems for the settling of the matter that's been troubling you; and settled it'll be now the one way or the other."

"I know the sort of plans he and Lord Manton would be likely to devise," said Miss Blow, scornfully. "I've had some experience of them."

She poured out a cup of tea as she spoke and devoted herself to her breakfast. Bridgy burst into the room. She appeared to be in a condition of violent excitement.

"There's four police on a car," she said, "driving up to the barrack, and two more along with them on bicycles."

"Is that four more on top of the first five?" asked Jimmy O'Loughlin.

"It is, it is," said Bridgy. "The Lord save us and help us! There'd hardly be more of them if there was to be a Member of Parliament making speeches about the land!" "There now," said Jimmy O'Loughlin, reproachfully, to Miss Blow. "What did I tell you? Sure, Mr. Goddard's as fine a man as e'er a one that's in it. It's himself will do a job in fine style when once he takes it in hand at all. That's eleven men, and Constable Moriarty makes twelve, and there was a sergeant with the first lot that I seen myself. Was there e'er a sergeant on the other car, Bridgy?"

"There was," said Bridgy. "I took notice of him passing, and one of them two that came on bicycles had two stripes on his arm."

"That makes two sergeants and an acting sergeant," said Jimmy O'Loughlin. "What more would you expect? What more would anybody want, unless it would be a gunboat sent round from Cork? And that's what you could hardly expect, unless it might be for an eviction on one of the islands." "I'll see what all these men are going to do," said Miss Blow, "before I give an opinion about them. I've been"

"Here's Mr. Goddard himself," said Jimmy O'Loughlin, who was standing near the window, "and his lordship along with him. And they have the big waggonette from the Castle and the dog-cart with the yellow cob in it. Be damn, but it's great!"

Miss Farquharson stood up and looked out of the window. Miss Blow, obstinately sceptical, continued to eat her breakfast. Mr. Goddard and Lord Manton entered the room.

"Ladies," said Mr. Goddard. "In a quarter of an hour we start for Rosivera."

"At the head of a small army," said Lord Manton. "Twelve men armed with carbines, not counting Mr. Goddard, who wears a sword."

"Fifteen men," said Mr. Goddard. "I'm expecting three more. They may arrive at any minute."

"I suppose," said Miss Blow, "that this is some new kind of trick."

"Come and see," said Mr. Goddard. "Lord Manton has placed his waggonette at your disposal. We invite your presence. We insist upon it."

"My niece and Mrs. Dick," said Miss Farquharson, "are still in their bedrooms."

"Get them out," said Lord Manton, "as quickly as possible. There is no time to be lost. Military expeditions of this sort cannot possibly be delayed."

"If so be," said Jimmy O'Loughlin, "that you'll be wanting me, as a magistrate, to be taking depositions or the like"

"We don't absolutely require you," said Lord Manton; "but we'll be glad to have you with us."

"It'll be better, then," said Jimmy, "if I go upstairs and put on a decent coat and shave myself. Bridgy, will you run like a good girl and get me a cup of hot water?"

"You may change your coat," said Mr. Goddard, "but you can't shave. There isn't time."

Miss Blow and Miss Farquharson left the room together. "Would you have any objection to telling me," said Jimmy O'Loughlin, "what is it that you're thinking of doing?"

"It's Lord Manton's plan," said Mr. Goddard, "not mine. The fact is, we're going to Rosivera to marry Mr. Red either to Miss Blow or Miss Farquharson."

"And is that the reason you have the police gathered from the four corners of the county?"

"It is," said Mr. Goddard.

"I wouldn't wonder but you're right. It's ten to one he won't care for the notion; not but what Miss Blow is a fine-looking young lady, and that's what I've always said since the first time ever I set eyes on her."

The street of Clonmore, the single street which runs from end to end of the village, presented a most unusual appearance when Miss Blow, followed by the other three ladies, emerged from the hotel. A long line of vehicles stretched from the door of the post-office to the barrack. There were two cars, each holding four policemen. They had their carbines between their knees and presented a most warlike and determined appearance. Next came a third car, Jimmy O'Loughlin's, with two policemen on one side of it, the side left vacant being intended for Mr. Goddard. Behind it was Lord Manton's dogcart. Jimmy O'Loughlin was on the back seat, Lord Manton sat beside the groom in front. Next came the waggonette with Mrs. Patsy Devlin in it. The acting sergeant and the constable who had arrived on bicycles stood beside their machines immediately behind the waggonette. They formed a kind of rear-guard, and could be counted on to frustrate any attempt which Mr. Red might make to attack the party from behind.

An eager crowd thronged the footpaths and broke into a cheer when the ladies appeared.

"Miss Blow, Miss Farquharson and ladies" said Mr. Goddard, when the noise of the cheering had subsided.

"We thought you were murdered too," said Mrs. Dick.

"Kindly do not interrupt me," said Mr. Goddard. He felt that he was at last in a position to assert himself even in the face of Miss Blow. A man acquires self-confidence when he is in command of an armed force.

"We start," he said, "for Rosivera, to discover whether Mr. Red, the man Red, as he has been well described, the tenant of that house, has anything to do with the extraordinary series of disappearances which have disturbed the peace of this neighbourhood." Lord Manton said, "Hear, hear!" from his seat in the dogcart, and the crowd cheered again. "We invite your presence, ladies, and place the waggonette which you see at your disposal. When you are seated in it we start at once. God save the King!"

"Hear, hear!" said Lord Manton again.

The four ladies, a little bewildered by this oration, took their seats in the waggonette. Mr. Goddard got up on his car and gave the order to march. The expedition started. An hour's steady driving brought the party to the top of the hill from which the gate of Rosivera is visible. Mr. Goddard gave the order to halt. It was passed forward to the leading car, and the expedition came to a standstill on the summit of the hill. Mr. Goddard got down from his car and walked up to Lord Manton.

"It's a damned awkward thing," he said, "to march up to a man's house at the head of a body of men like this."

"Don't say you're thinking of going back," said Lord Manton. "It would be a shame to disappoint Miss Blow." "I'm not going back; but all the same it's awkward. What excuse shall I make?"

"If he's been kidnaping people," said Lord Manton, "he won't expect you to make any excuse."

"Oh, of course, if he really has. But has he?"

"The only way of finding out for certain is to go and see. Miss Blow won't be satisfied with anything less."

"Damn Miss Blow. Anyhow, we needn't drive up to the house as if we were a funeral."

He gave an order to the police, who dismounted. Mr. Goddard marched at the head of them down the hill. Lord Manton and Jimmy O'Loughlin followed. The ladies, led by Miss Blow, also followed. At the gate of Rosivera, Mr. Goddard halted his party. He ordered the police to remain outside the gate. He invited Lord Manton to accompany him to the house. Then with a glance at the ladies he told one of the sergeants not to allow any one else to pass the gate.

Miss Blow reached the bottom of the hill and prepared to follow Mr. Goddard along the avenue. She was stopped by the sergeant. Suspecting some trick to be played on her at this last and critical moment, she suggested to Miss Farquharson that they should force their way through the cordon of police, by making, all four of them, a simultaneous rush. Miss Farquharson refused to do anything of the sort, and gave it as her opinion that Mrs. Sanders and Mrs. Dick would be quite useless in a hand-to-hand conflict. Miss Blow left her, walked a little way along the road, crossed a ditch, and began to climb the wall which enclosed the Rosivera grounds. The police eyed her doubtfully. They did not want to lay violent hands on Miss Blow. They excused themselves to their own consciences. Their orders were to prevent her passing through the gate. Mr. Goddard had said nothing about what was to be done if she climbed the wall.

Mr. Goddard and Lord Manton surveyed the house. It looked peaceful, too peaceful. There was no sign of its being inhabited.

"Are you sure," said Mr. Goddard, "that there's anybody here?"

"I'm not sure," said Lord Manton. "I only know that I let the house to the man Red. He may or may not be living in it. I never saw him."

Mr. Goddard walked up to the door and knocked. There was no answer. He knocked again. Still there was no answer. He turned the handle and pushed. The door resisted his push. It was locked.

"What shall we do now?" he said to Lord Manton.

Then he caught sight of Miss Blow, who was crossing the gravel sweep.

"Go back," he said; "go back at once. This is no place for ladies."

"I won't go back," said Miss Blow. "If I did you'd not enter the house at all. You would come back in ten minutes and say you had searched it and that there was nobody inside."

"My dear Miss Blow," said Lord Manton, "Mr. Goddard may perhaps deserve that, but surely I don't. Be just. Give me credit for common honesty."

"I'm sorry I can't do that," said Miss Blow.

"You might," said Lord Manton. "I gave you tea yesterday."

"You can come with us if you like," said Mr. Goddard; "but how do you propose to get in? The door is locked."

"The top of that is open," said Miss Blow, pointing with her finger to the window at the left side of the door, "so I suppose the bottom can be pushed up."

Mr. Goddard felt like a burglar, which is an unpleasant sensation for a police officer, but one which he was getting gradually accustomed to. He had experienced it when he hid in the stable of Jimmy O'Loughlin's hotel and when he entered his own house by way of the back garden. He had experienced it when he drove out of Ballymoy in the early morning and when he tried to escape from Lord Manton's library. He had experienced it again when he concealed himself in the Clonmore post-office. He opened the window and climbed in. Miss Blow followed him. Lord Manton, moving rather stiffly, for he was not used to climbing, followed her. They stood together in the dining-room.

"Dear me," said Lord Manton, "what a very remarkable taste Mr. Red has in wall decoration! Yellow dragons on a crimson ground! Did you ever see anything like that before, Miss Blow?"

Miss Blow made no answer. She was opening the doors of the small cupboards in the sideboard, in the hope, perhaps, of discovering the mutilated remains of some of Mr. Red's victims. She found nothing but empty bottles and some wine-glasses.

"Even the door," said Lord Manton, "has been painted, and there is a large yellow dragon on it, a mother dragon with several young ones. You'd better follow her, Goddard."

He added this hurriedly, and obviously did not refer to the female dragon. Miss Blow had opened the door and passed through it into the hall.

"The door opposite to you," said Lord Manton, "leads into the drawing-room."

It did not look like a drawing-room when they entered it. A heavy deal table, like a carpenter's bench, stood in the middle of the floor, and on it were a number of curiously shaped metal flasks. There was a pile of long brass tubes in one corner of the room, which looked like empty cartridge cases, intended to contain ammunition for some very large gun. There were wooden shelves all round the walls stocked with thick glass bottles, such as are seen in chemists' shops, bottles with glass stoppers. In one corner the floor was charred, as if a fire had been lighted on it.

"Nobody here," said Mr. Goddard, looking round.

Lord Manton was staring curiously at the things about him. He picked up one of the brass tubes.

"A.M.B.A.," he read. "What do you suppose that means, Miss Blow? Hullo! She's gone again. After her, Goddard! We can't allow her to escape. There may be an explosion at any moment. This place looks uncommonly explosive, and if she is shattered into little bits her father will hold us responsible."

Miss Blow stood at the bottom of the stairs, listening intently.

"I hear a noise in the upper story," she said. "The house isn't empty."

Mr. Goddard and Lord Manton listened.

"There is a noise," said Lord Manton. "Goddard, unsheathe your sword and proceed cautiously up the first flight of stairs. We will protect your rear."

They reached the first floor of the house and the noise became much more plainly audible.

"It sounds to me," said Lord Manton, "as if Mr. Red—the man Red, I mean—and his friends were having a hurdle race in the attics."

"Go on," said Miss Blow.

"Let us pause for a moment," said Lord Manton, "and consider the situation before we rush headlong into some unknown danger. I am inclined to think that several men are jumping hurdles, and from the occasional violence of the bumps I should say that one of them is a heavy man, much heavier than the others. Can you infer anything else from the noise we hear, Miss Blow? Or you, Goddard? Very well, if neither of you can, we may as well go on, bearing in mind that there are several men and that one of them is large."

They climbed two more flights of stairs and reached the top story of the house. The noise sounded very loud. Guided by it they reached the door of a room at the end of the passage. Mr. Goddard knocked. There was no reply, but this did not surprise him, for the noise inside was so great as to drown the knock.

"Go in," said Miss Blow.

Mr. Goddard turned the handle. "The door is locked," he said.

"The key is on the outside," said Miss Blow. "Turn it."

"As landlord of the house," said Lord Manton, "allow me."

He turned the key and flung open the door. Inside were Dr. O'Grady, Mr. Dick, Patsy Devlin, Sergeant Farrelly and Constable Cole. They were playing leapfrog. Mr. Sanders sat on a bed in the corner and watched them. Dr. O'Grady, executing a splendid bound over Sergeant Farrelly's broad back, landed on his feet opposite the door just as it opened.

"Adeline Maud," he said, "I'm delighted to see you. Have you been here long? I hope you weren't kept waiting at the door."