"Just a little well-meant advice, Parker. I think the young lady will have profited by the lesson."
"I wish I knew what you were talking about, Pons," I grumbled.
"Patience, Parker, patience. All will be explained in due course. But I must confess that one thing still puzzles me. I now have two distinct strands but no possible motive for the second."
Solar Pons paused and looked at my thunderstruck face before bursting into laughter.
"Really, Parker, your features present an indescribable picture! But it is almost dusk. I suggest we use the passes with which Sir Clive has furnished us and remain in the grounds until after dark. Let us just give it an hour. Perhaps we can spend the time in one of the heated tropical houses because the night promises to be cold."
We were outside now and the air was indeed biting. "But what on earth are we going to do, Pons?"
My companion stared at me, his lean, feral features alight with excitement.
"I have the feeling that something that should have happened has not yet happened. Call it a sixth sense if you will. But I am rarely wrong. A number of incidents have occurred, some trivial, some serious. In my opinion they are but stage-dressing for something else."
My puzzlement must have been evident on my features for Pons slowed his walk and looked at me with wry affection.
"My dear Parker, I do not know what will happen or where danger will strike. The Zoo grounds are large and extensive, the houses and animal enclosures numerous and complicated. But I should feel more at ease if you would stay with me for an hour or two."
"Certainly, Pons," said I. "But if we are going to hang about in the cold I suggest we first repair to the restaurant or the Fellows' dining room. There is an excellent bar there and I have a first-rate prescription for keeping out the cold."
Solar Pons chuckled.
"There are unsuspected depths to you, Parker. Sometimes it is difficult to remember you are a physician."
And with which sardonic comment he set off at a brisk pace across the grounds.
8
Mist swirled silently in the darkness and far off a faint gas-lamp sent out a drowning beam of light toward us. The coughing roar of a lion echoed, melancholy and remote across the park and left a sombre reflection in my heart. I shifted my feet and stamped them cautiously, conscious of Pons' disapproving face beside me in the gloom. We stood in the deep porch of one of the mammal houses and rested briefly. We had been walking about the Zoological Gardens for an hour but it seemed as though we had covered miles. I was about to venture an observation when Pons' hand was upon my arm and I heard the hissed intake of his breath.
A moment later I caught the sound which his sharp ears had already heard; the agitated beat of a man's feet running through the white blanket. It was far off and for a moment I could not place the direction. Then we both caught the urgent note of the voice. There was fear and panic in it as it called, Murder! Police!"
Pons gave a muffled exclamation.
"We are too late, Parker! I blame myself for this. As quick as you can."
He was already disappearing into the fog and I had difficulty in keeping his tall, lean figure in sight. He moved fast, despite the whiteness which hemmed us in and his sharp eyes unerringly guided us round obstructions and kept us in the right direction.
Within two minutes we could hear the muffled sound of more footsteps in response to urgent calls and figures were about us. A police constable lurched into me, his bulls-eye lantern making a pale glow, and recoiled with an apology.
"Dr Parker isn't it? Up near the next entrance, sir."
When Pons and I arrived, there was a small knot of people, and the purposeful figure of Superintendent Heathfield detached itself from the melee.
"Good to see you both, Mr Pons. It is fatal this time, I am afraid. In the gorilla enclosure."
Solar Pons nodded, his face impassive and dream-like in the light of the lanterns.
"That has solved one mystery, Superintendent."
The words were spoken almost to himself and I saw the police officer look at him with a start. With the frightened attendant who had given the alarm leading the way, we were soon at the scene of the tragedy. It had taken place in a large wood and cement building which housed the greater primates. The main door had been broken, the glass panel shattered.
The leading attendants and the uniformed police officers were pressing inside when Pons stopped them with a sudden exclamation.
"Hullo! This is curious indeed, Parker. The glass has been broken from inside."
Heathfield and I exchanged puzzled glances. Pons had stooped to examine the shattered fragments of glass which lay on the cement walk outside the entrance.
"That is so, Mr Pons. Why on earth would anyone want to break out?"
Solar Pons smiled an enigmatic smile.
"Think about it, my dear fellow. It leads to one inescapable conclusion."
"Perhaps, Pons," I said shortly. "But can we not leave this until later? It is cold out here and if murder has been done inside…"
"You are quite right, Parker. Lead on, Superintendent."
I hurried in the wake of my companions and in a few moments more we came upon one of the most bizarre and horrific scenes I had ever encountered either during my years with Pons or within my medical experience.
The house was divided into two parts with a broad cement aisle separating the heated enclosures either side. Chimpanzees, gibbons and large apes sat sullenly in their respective cages, blinking in the dim electric light, as though they had been awakened from sleep. There was a welcome warmth in here and I guessed that the stout metal walls at the rear of the cages, each complete with sliding door, gave on to roomy enclosures in the open air which the animals occupied in summer.
The attendant who had raised the alarm was standing by a large, thickly barred enclosure at the far end of the house; a dim form loomed gigantically within and made shuffling noises in the deep straw and other litter which covered the floor. A constable near me shone his electric lantern within the bars and disclosed the dark-clad human figure which lay at a grotesque angle. Motionless and rigid it was a foot or two from the indistinct shape.
Then the lantern beam moved upward and I could not repress a shudder as its rays caught the red-rimmed eyes; the crooked teeth; and the black, bestial muzzle. The huge gorilla stared unwinkingly at the spectators beyond the bars while its claws continued to make shuffling noises in the straw. I pulled my eyes reluctantly away from that terrific spectacle.
"You are the expert, Parker," said Pons coolly. "Pray give us your opinion."
I looked again at the form which sprawled face down, its features invisible in the littered straw.
"He is undoubtedly dead, Pons," I said. "The angle of the head indicates that immediately. His neck has been broken."
"Has it not. I had come to roughly the same conclusion myself but I am glad to have your professional opinion. Under the circumstances it is perhaps just as well, as it will undoubtedly take some little time to extricate the body."
He glanced up at the white plaque which was attached to the wall near the cage.
"Boris. Male Gorilla. Hmm. What do you make of it, Superintendent?"
"1 would not like to express an ad hoc opinion, Mr Pons, but it certainly looks as though the intruder gained entrance to the beast's cage with the intention of letting it loose. We may have inadvertently discovered the Phantom."
"It could be so," said Solar Pons carelessly. "But I have grave doubts."
He indicated the sliding bolt on the door. The padlock and chain lay on the floor but the bolt had been slid to.
"It is hardly likely that he would secure the door behind him under those circumstances. And I understood the gorilla was a vegetarian."