We ran along Churt Row and turned out of it to the left. Presently we were on a main road. After a bit I got cautiously on my knees and took a look out of the window. I didn’t want to get carried out of my way-and my way lay in the direction of Linwood. I wondered if he was making for Croydon. If he was, I had better see about getting out.
I threw off the rug, got up, and said,
“Thanks very much for the lift. I think I’ll get off here.”
I must say I admired his nerve. He swerved about six inches, and it was a minute before he said anything. He slowed down, drew in to the side of the road, and stopped. Then he said,
“What the devil are you doing in my car?”
I got out and stood by his window. It was open. I could see him like a big smudge of shadow leaning forward over the wheel.
“Do you want to call in the police?” I said.
It was a stupid bit of bluff, but I made pretty sure he’d be as anxious to keep clear of them as I was.
“ Fairfax?” he asked; and then, “They are looking for you in my garden, aren’t they? As far as I am concerned, they can go on looking. Do you mind telling me why you were striking matches there about half an hour ago? It was you, wasn’t it?”
I said, “Yes.”
“And how much of our conversation did you overhear when Anna and I came out to look for you?”
“Oh-some.”
“Enough to congratulate me?”
“On your marriage?” I said.
He laughed.
“Where were you? In the bushes?”
“I was nicely placed for listening in,” I said.
He moved round to face me.
“You’re going to Linwood, I suppose? Will you give Anna a message for me? I don’t particularly want to wire or ring up.”
“Well?” I was waiting for the message.
“Give it to her when she’s by herself.” He had an easy, commanding manner. “Tell her she’ll have to cross alone after all-I’m going on. Tell her some one will meet her. That’s all.”
He turned to the wheel. Then suddenly he jerked his head back over his shoulder.
“Anna’s got it in for you. I suppose you know that?”
I said it was beginning to dawn on me.
“Did you ever hear of a thing called the Queen Anne bow?” he asked.
I laughed.
“To the best of my belief, I’ve got it sewn into the hem of my coat at this moment,” I said.
“Oh, you know?” He seemed surprised.
“Yes, I know. That is why I’m going to Linwood.”
He waited for a moment. Then he laughed too.
“All right-that’s all-I thought I’d just let you know. You’ll give Anna my message?”
I said, “Yes.” Then I watched him drive away.
I walked on to the nearest lamp. I was considering what I was going to do. I had enough money to go to an hotel, but I wondered whether they would take me in, grimy, disheveled, torn, and without a stick of baggage. I thought a railway hotel would be my best chance. I stood under the lamp and dived for my wallet, just to make sure how much money I had.
My wallet was gone.
XLI
Dr. Monk was having a most uncomfortable quarter of an hour. He sat on one side of the library table and looked across it at his old friend Mr. Carthew, who was not looking at him in at all a friendly manner. At the end of the table stood Anna Lang, one arm resting on the back of the chair from which she had just risen. She was very pale. The other arm hung at her side, the hand white and ringless.
Mr. Carthew thumped the table.
“What cock-and-bull story is this?” he- said in a loud, intemperate voice.
“My dear Carthew-”
“I asked you a question, Monk.”
“I can only say-” Dr. Monk was not allowed to say it.
“And I want an answer!” said Mr. Carthew, and thumped again.
Anna Lang stood quite still. She was looking down at the table edge.
“If you will allow me to speak-” said Dr. Monk with some offense.
Mr. Carthew pushed back his chair and flung himself into the corner of it.
“Oh, speak-speak-speak! Let’s have the whole thing out and have done with it!”
“It was on the evening of September the seventeenth,” said Dr. Monk, frowning. “Miss Lang rang me up and told me you’d given her a fright-she said she’d found you unconscious on the floor-she seemed to think you’d had a shock. She asked me to come up and have a look at you. I came along at once, and in the street just outside Turner’s I saw Car Fairfax.”
Mr. Carthew snorted.
“In the dark?” he said.
“Really, Carthew! He was holding a torch for a man who was doing something to his car. Just as I passed, the man reached up for the torch, and as he took it, the light shone in Car’s face.”
“Go on,” said Mr. Carthew combatively.
“I came up here. Miss Lang told me that you didn’t remember anything at all about your attack.”
Mr. Carthew snorted again.
“I didn’t remember anything about it because I never had it!”
Anna went on looking at the edge of the table. Her black lashes lay without moving upon the pale, even skin of her cheek.
Dr. Monk, leaning a little forward upon the arms of his chair, cleared his throat and went on:
“I found you sleeping comfortably”-Mr. Carthew gave a loud, angry laugh-“but Miss Lang was in a state of considerable distress. She had found the library window open. I came in here with her to see whether anything had been taken.”
“Well?” said Mr. Carthew explosively.
Dr. Monk turned in his chair and pointed past Anna at the tall bureau which stood between the windows.
“That top drawer was open. Some one had been rummaging in it-the papers had all been turned about, and your check-book was lying across the top of them, open.”
“Is that all?”
“No,” said Dr. Monk. “No-not quite. I pulled down the flap of the bureau, and some one had been making hay there too-everything had been turned out of the pigeon-holes, and your keys were lying straggling on the top of the pile.”
Mr. Carthew got very red in the face.
“And why wasn’t I told all this before, pray?”
Dr. Monk looked uncomfortably at Anna. She spoke for the first time, in a low, colorless voice.
“I said I would tell you.” She paused, then repeated, “I told Dr. Monk that I would tell you.”
“I thought Miss Lang had told you,” said Dr. Monk. He hesitated a little. “I didn’t think that I should refer to what might be a-a-well, a painful family matter.”
“Painful!” said Mr. Carthew angrily. “Family!”-more angrily still-“Upon my word, Monk-a painful family matter! What put it into your head that there was anything painful-what? Or that it concerned my family? I say what put such a thing into your head?”
Dr. Monk sat back in his chair. He had said his say, and was glad to get it over. He saw no reason for holding anything back now.
“Miss Lang’s distress,” he said. “When I mentioned having seen her cousin, she was-er-very much affected. It was impossible not to notice it, impossible not to draw one’s conclusions-especially when she begged me not to tell any one that I had seen Car Fairfax.”
Mr. Carthew turned towards Anna, rapping sharply on the table.
“Why was that? Why did you ask him that?”
“I don’t know,” said Anna in a whisper.
“You did ask Monk not to tell any one he had seen Car?”
“Yes.”
“Why? You must know why you did it! Come-out with it-what!”
Anna drew a long sighing breath. It seemed to send a tremor over her from head to foot.
“I was afraid.”
“What were you afraid of? Of Car?” He laughed harshly. “You won’t ask me to believe that, I hope?”
“Not of him--for him,” said Anna.
“Good Lord! Can’t you speak up?” A mounting exasperation big fair to choke his utterance.