“Forgive me, but I do not like your friend,” he said. “Can’t you tell me what is troubling you? It would make me very happy to be able to help you.”
“You mustn’t see me again,” the girl said. “I have already allowed you to place yourself in a very dangerous position. If you ever see Major Lanser again, keep well out of his way.” She smiled and stood up. “You have done me a great service and I will always be grateful. Good-bye.”
Before D’Artagnan could speak the girl moved swiftly away from the table. D’Artagnan sprang to his feet, but the girl, by that time, had disappeared through a door that led to the lobby of the hotel.
“This time I shall not stand like a stupid clod,” D’Artagnan said. “Hurry, there is still time for us to catch her. She needs our help.”
Phillip paid the waiter. His thoughts were wheeling nervously.
“You’ve got to be careful,” he said worriedly to D’Artagnan; “that Major Lanser is dangerous. I could tell that from his eyes. They were as cold as the eyes of a snake.”
“But that girl needs help,” D’Artagnan said impatiently. “Come along. If the Major proves troublesome it will be most unfortunate — for the Major.” With Phillip pattering at his heels he strode across the floor to the lobby. Except for a few men reading newspapers, the room was deserted.
“Possibly she took a cab,” Phillip suggested.
Grimly, D’Artagnan shoved through the revolving door to the street. He grabbed the doorman by the arm.
“Did you see a young lady leave here a moment ago? A tall, red-haired girl?”
“I called a cab for her,” the doorman answered.
“Was she alone?”
“Yes, she was alone when she got into the cab, but a man stepped in after her before the cab started. They left together.”
“What did the man look like?” D’Artagnan demanded.
The doorman frowned. “I didn’t get a good look, but I noticed he seemed pretty well dressed. And, let me see, he wore a monocle. I think he had a scar on his face, but I’m not sure.”
“Did you hear the address they gave the driver?” Phillip asked.
“I think he said Mannerly Towers,” the doorman answered.
“Call us a cab,” D’Artagnan said. “What do you intend to do?” Phillip asked nervously.
“Follow them, of course. We may already be too late.”
“But if this girl is in trouble,” Phillip said, “it’s a matter for the police. You don’t know what you might be sticking your neck into. Let me call the station and have a squad of men sent over to the Mannerly Towers.”
D’Artagnan shook his head. “The gendarmes have an unhappy faculty of making a supreme mess of anything that requires tact and diplomacy. We must handle this ourselves. But you are right in one respect. We may need help. Call your room and tell Aramis. Porthos and Athos that I need them and give them the address of Mannerly Towers. Tell them to come there as quickly as possible. I would rather have them at my side than all the gendarmes in the city.”
Phillip did as he was directed and when he returned to the sidewalk a cab was waiting and D’Artagnan was waiting impatiently.
Phillip crawled into the cab beside D’Artagnan and sank back against the cushions as it pulled away from the curb with a roar.
“Mannerly Towers!” D’Artagnan snapped. “Quickly!”
Chapter VIII
D’Artagnan and Phillip stepped from the cab before the imposing facade of the Mannerly Towers. The building was located at the near North side and it had only taken them a few minutes to reach it, but D’Artagnan had fidgeted all the way.
When Phillip paid the driver he strode toward the main entrance.
“Don’t you think we’d better go around the back way?” Phillip said. “There’s no point in advertising our entry.”
“There is no time for such maneuvering,” D’Artagnan said. “We must depend on the surprise value of a frontal attack.”
The desk clerk looked inquiringly at them.
“We wish to see Major Lanser,” Phillip said. “What is his suite number?”
“Thirteen-forty,” the clerk answered, “but is the Major expecting you?”
“Yes!” D’Artagnan snapped.
Phillip led the way to the elevators. The elevator operator shot them up to the thirteenth floor, deposited them and started back down.
The corridor was carpeted with a luxurious gray rug that muffled their footsteps as they moved along the hall to a gleaming white door bearing the number 1340.
“This is it,” Phillip said in a whisper, “but don’t you think we’d better wait until Athos and the others get here?”
“I don’t know,” D’Artagnan frowned.
He stopped speaking as the door in front of them opened and the tall figure of Major Lanser appeared in the doorway.
“A pleasant surprise,” the Major said quietly. “Did you forget that the desk clerk would inform me that you were on your way up?”
Looking over the Major’s shoulder, Phillip saw a long, empty room, furnished in quiet good taste.
“What is it you wanted?” the Major asked. His face was set in hard, expressionless lines, but his eyes were as dull and cold as death.
“The girl,” D’Artagnan said, meeting his gaze squarely. “We know that she accompanied you here and it is to be our pleasure to relieve her of your unpleasant company.”
“So?” the Major smiled. “You are still playing the role of gallant rescuer, are you? I am sorry to disappoint you. The girl is not here. You are welcome to look, if that will ease your mind.”
He stepped aside and bowed mockingly.
D’Artagnan regarded him coolly for an instant, then stepped past him into the long room. Phillip followed hesitantly. The Major closed the door and strolled to the center of the room, his thin face cynically amused.
“Are you satisfied?” he said softly.
“No,” D’Artagnan said. He glanced about the room with narrowed eyes. He noted a set of fencing foils above the mantle, a picture of the Major in uniform, but nothing to indicate the presence of the red-haired girl.
“There are other rooms, are there not?” he asked.
The Major smiled. “I was hoping you would have enough sense to be satisfied, but obviously you haven’t.” He raised his hand in a signal and a door at the end of the room opened. A squat man with a gun in his hand stepped into the room and moved to the side wall, where his gun covered D’Artagnan and Phillip.
Phillip swallowed nervously and he could hear the terrified thudding of his heart in the sudden stillness of the room.
Another man stepped through the doorway, but he was not alone. At his side was the red-haired girl. Her eyes were enormous pools in the whiteness of her face. Phillip saw that her wrists were taped together behind her.
“Oh, you shouldn’t have followed me,” she said, her voice breaking. She glanced swiftly, imploringly at Major Lanser. “Please don’t hurt them. Let them go. They don’t know a thing. I give you my word.”
“Your solicitude is very touching,” Major Lanser said. “But, unfortunately, I can’t do as you suggest. It would be very foolish of me to let them go now. They have already seen too much. No, I am sorry, but they must be disposed of as soon as possible.”
Phillip was standing beside a table on which a heavy metal ashtray rested. He was about six feet from the man who held the gun. Almost of its own volition his hand moved slowly to the ashtray and closed over it. His heart was hammering frantically. All of his cautious, common sense instincts were demanding that he put his hand back to his side and forget the wild idea in his head. But instead he lifted the ashtray slowly from the table. No one was watching him. No one saw him move until he turned and threw the heavy weight squarely at the closely cropped head of the squat little man with the gun.