Tallis brooded in silence and stared at the house. They were not kept waiting long. The coachman was the first to emerge, running to the stables at the side of the house with a servant in attendance. Against such an emergency, the carriage was already loaded with baggage but the horses had to be harnessed. While that was happening the front door of the house remained shut. When the carriage finally came round the angle of the building, Colbeck dismounted, tethered his horse to a bush and walked briskly up the drive.
‘Wherever is he going?’ demanded Tallis. ‘Those men are armed.’
‘Inspector Colbeck has taken that into account, sir,’ said Leeming.
‘I gave him no permission to move.’
‘He obviously feels that he does not need it.’
Colbeck strode on until he was no more than twenty yards from the house. When three figures came out, he had a clear view of them. Dressed in a satin cloak with a hood, Madeleine Andrews was being forced along between Gilzean and Sholto. The men stopped when they saw Colbeck standing there, weighing him up with a mixture of cold scorn and grudging admiration.
‘Are you bearing up, Miss Andrews?’ asked Colbeck.
‘Yes, Inspector,’ she replied, summoning up a brave smile. ‘They have not hurt me.’
‘Nor will we if the Inspector has the sense to do as I tell him,’ said Gilzean, letting Sholto get into the carriage before pushing Madeleine after him. ‘Goodbye, Inspector. I am sorry that our acquaintance has to be so fleeting.’
‘Well meet again soon, Sir Humphrey,’ said Colbeck.
‘I think not, sir.’
Clambering into his seat, Gilzean ordered the coachman to drive off. The policemen could simply watch as the vehicle was allowed to leave the estate unimpeded. Tallis was fuming with impotent rage. When the departing carriage was out of sight, he told his driver to take him to the house. Colbeck was standing at the front door when they arrived.
‘Have you taken leave of your senses, Inspector?’ said Tallis, getting out of the vehicle to confront him. ‘From that distance, they could easily have shot you.’
‘I wanted to make sure that Miss Andrews was unhurt.’
‘You should not have put your own life in danger, man.’
‘I survived,’ said Colbeck, removing his top hat and examining it for holes. ‘And so did my hat, it seems.’
‘This is no time for humour. We have just been compelled to let two of the worst criminals I have ever encountered go free, and all that you can do is to joke about it.’
‘Their freedom is only temporary, Superintendent.’
‘How can we catch them when we have no idea where they have gone? Their escape was obviously planned.’
‘Yes,’ agreed Colbeck, ‘but they did not expect to put their plan into action for a few days yet. They had to leave in a hurry and that means they will not have had time to cover their tracks. Let us search the house,’ he urged. ‘Well soon find out where they are heading.’
Madeleine Andrews did not wish to be seated beside Thomas Sholto but it spared her the agony of having to face him during the journey. Instead, as the carriage rumbled along at speed, she was looking at Sir Humphrey Gilzean, a man who paid such meticulous attention to his clothing that she was reminded of Colbeck. She felt a pang of regret that she had got so close to the Inspector only to be dragged away again. For his part, Gilzean was also reminded of someone. It put sadness into his eyes and the faintest tremor into his voice.
‘That cloak belonged to my wife,’ he said, pursing his lips as a painful memory intruded. ‘Nothing but extremity would have made me loan it to another woman, but it is a convenient disguise.’
‘Where are you taking me?’ she asked.
‘Somewhere you would never have dreamt of going.’ He saw her glance over her shoulder. ‘Do not bother to look for help, Miss Andrews,’ he advised. ‘They are not following us. I have kept watch on the road since we left the house.’
Sholto was angry. ‘How did they get to us so soon?’ he growled.
‘Do not worry about that now.’
‘I do worry, Humphrey. I thought that you had led them astray.’
‘So did I,’ admitted Gilzean, ‘but we have a formidable adversary in this Inspector Colbeck. I’m sure that Miss Andrews will agree. He is a remarkable man.’
‘He is,’ she affirmed, ‘and he will catch you somehow.’
‘Not if he values your life,’ said Sholto.
‘Besides,’ added Gilzean, ‘the gallant Inspector will have to find us first and there is no chance of that. His writ does not run as far as the place we are going.’
Madeleine was alarmed. ‘And where is that?’ she said.
‘You will see. But when we get there, I’m afraid that I will have to divest you of that cloak. It suited my wife perfectly,’ he went on with a mournful smile, ‘but it does not become you at all.’
‘No,’ said Sholto, harshly. ‘You belong in the servant’s dress.’
‘There is no need for bad manners, Thomas,’ scolded Gilzean.
‘Miss Andrews will get no courtesy from me – not after she tried to crack my head open with a wine bottle.’
‘Noblesse oblige.’
‘To hell with that, Humphrey! Do you know what I hope?’ he said, turning to glare at Madeleine. ‘In one way, I hope that Inspector Colbeck does turn up again.’
‘Do you?’ she said, quailing inwardly.
‘Yes, I do – because it will give me the perfect excuse to put a bullet through your head.’
Madeleine said nothing for the remainder of the journey.
While the servants were being questioned by Superintendent Tallis, the house was searched by Inspector Colbeck and Sergeant Leeming. The three men met up in the drawing room. Hands behind his back, Tallis was pulling on a cigar and standing in front of the marble fireplace. His expression revealed that he had learnt little from his interrogations.
‘It is useless,’ he said, exhaling a cloud of smoke. ‘The servants were told nothing. Even if they had been, they are so ridiculously loyal to their master that they would not betray him.’ He fixed an eye on Leeming. ‘What did you find, Sergeant?’
‘Only that Sir Humphrey has a lot more money than I do, sir,’ replied the other. ‘Parts of the house are almost palatial. It made me feel as if I was not supposed to be here.’
‘This is where those terrible crimes were hatched.’
‘Yes,’ said Colbeck, ‘and I think that I know why.’ He handed Tallis a faded newspaper. ‘This was tucked away in a desk drawer in the library. It contains a report of the death of Lady Gilzean.’
‘She was thrown from a horse. I told you that.’
‘But you did not explain how it happened, Inspector. Read the article and you will see that Sir Humphrey and his wife were out riding when the sound of a train whistle disturbed the animals. Lady Gilzean’s horse reared and she was thrown from the saddle.’
‘No wonder he detests railways,’ commented Leeming.
‘Who can blame him?’ said Tallis, reading the report. ‘It was a real tragedy. Lady Gilzean’s neck was broken in the fall. However,’ he went on, putting the newspaper on the mantelpiece, ‘it is one thing to despise the railway system but quite another to wage war against it.’
‘It’s time for the steam locomotive to strike back,’ said Colbeck.
‘What are you talking about, Inspector?’
‘This, sir.’ Colbeck held up a booklet. ‘I found this in the desk. It’s a timetable for sailings from the port of Bristol. Sir Humphrey Gilzean and his accomplice are fleeing the country.’
‘Going abroad?’ gasped Tallis. ‘Then we’ll never catch them.’
‘But we will, sir. They are only travelling by carriage, remember, and they will have to pace the horses carefully. We, on the other hand, will be able to go much faster.’ Colbeck smiled at him. ‘By train.’