THE DOCTOR 
 
 WILLIAM LE Q.UEXJX

 
 THE DOCTOR OF PIMLICO 
 
 Dm. OF CALIF- LIBKARY, LOS AHGELES
 
 "Enid Drew Back In Terror" 
 
 (The Doctor of Pimlico)
 
 THE DOCTOR 
 OF PIMLICO 
 
 Being the Disclosure of a Great Crime 
 BY WILLIAM LE QUEUX 
 
 FRONTISPIECE 
 
 A. L. BURT COMPANY 
 
 Publishers New York 
 
 Published by arrangement with The Macaulay Company
 
 COPTBIQHT. 1920, 
 
 BT THE MACAULAY COMPANY 
 
 Printed in the U. S. A.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTEB PAGE 
 
 I. IN WHICH CERTAIN SUSPICIONS ARE EXCITED . . 9 
 
 II. THE COMING OF A STRANGER 21 
 
 III. INTRODUCES DOCTOR WEIRMARSH 82 
 
 IV. REVEALS TEMPTATION 47 
 
 V. IN WHICH ENID ORLEBAR is PUZZLED .... 56 
 
 VI. BENEATH THE ELASTIC BAND 66 
 
 VII. CONCERNING THE VELVET HAND 78 
 
 VIII. PAUL LE PONTOIS 88 
 
 IX. THE LITTLE OLD FRENCHWOMAN 97 
 
 X. IF ANYONE KNEW 107 
 
 XI. CONCERNS THE PAST 114 
 
 XII. REVEALS A CURIOUS PROBLEM 125 
 
 XIII. THE MYSTERIOUS MR. MALTWOOD 134 
 
 XIV. WHAT CONFESSION WOULD MEAN 145 
 
 XV. THREE GENTLEMEN FROM PARIS 157 
 
 XVI. THE ORDERS OF His EXCELLENCY 168 
 
 XVII. WALTER GIVES WARNING 177 
 
 XVIII. THE ACCUSERS 187 
 
 XIX. IN WHICH A TRUTH is HIDDEN 199 
 
 XX. IN WHICH A TRUTH is TOLD 207 
 
 XXI. THE WIDENED BREACH . 217 
 
 XXII. CONCERNING THE BELLAIRS AFFAIR 227 
 
 XXIII. THE SILENCE OF THE MAN BARKER 234 
 
 XXIV. WHAT THE DEAD MAN LEFT 245 
 
 XXV. AT THE CAFE DE PARIS 255 
 
 XXVI. WHICH is "PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL" . . . 265 
 
 XXVII. THE RESULT OF INVESTIGATION 274 
 
 XXVIH. THE SECRET OF THE LONELY HOUSE 285 
 
 XXIX. CONTAINS SOME STARTLING STATEMENTS .... 292 
 
 XXX. REVEALS A WOMAN'S LOVE 303 
 
 [XXXI. IN WHICH SIR HUGH TELLS HIS STOBY .... 810 
 
 XXXII. CONCLUSION 821
 
 THE DOCTOR OF PIMLICO 
 
 Being the Disclosure of a Great Crime 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 IN WHICH CERTAIN SUSPICIONS AEE EXCITED 
 
 A GREY, sunless morning on the Firth of Tay. 
 
 Across a wide, sandy waste stretching away 
 to the misty sea at Budden, four men were walk- 
 ing. Two wore uniform one an alert, grey- 
 haired general, sharp and brusque in manner, 
 with many war ribbons across his tunic; the 
 other a tall, thin-faced staff captain, who wore 
 the tartan of the Gordon Highlanders. With 
 them were two civilians, both in rough shooting- 
 jackets and breeches, one about forty-five, the 
 other a few years his junior. 
 
 "Can you see them, Fellowes?" asked the 
 general of the long-legged captain, scanning the 
 distant horizon with those sharp grey eyes which 
 had carried him safely through many campaigns. 
 
 " No, sir," replied the captain, who was 
 carrying the other's mackintosh. " I fancy they 
 
 9
 
 io The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 must be farther over to the left, behind those 
 low mounds yonder." 
 
 " Haven't brought their battery into position 
 yet, I suppose," snapped the old officer, as he 
 swung along with the two civilians beside him. 
 
 Fred Tredennick, the taller of the two civil- 
 ians, walked with a gait decidedly military, for, 
 indeed, he was a retired major, and as the gen- 
 eral had made a tour of inspection of the camp 
 prior to walking towards where the mountain 
 battery was manoeuvring, he had been chatting 
 with him upon technical matters. 
 
 " I thought you'd like to see this mountain 
 battery, Fetherston," exclaimed the general, 
 addressing the other civilian. ' We have lots of 
 them on the Indian frontier, of course, and there 
 were many of ours in Italy and Serbia." 
 
 "I'm delighted to come with you on this 
 tour of inspection, General. As you know, I'm 
 keenly interested in military affairs and espe- 
 cially in the reorganisation of the Army after 
 the war," replied Walter Fetherston, a dark, 
 well-set-up man of forty, with a round, merry 
 face and a pair of eyes which, behind their gold 
 pince-nez, showed a good-humoured twinkle. 
 
 Of the four men, General Sir Hugh Elcombe 
 and Walter Fetherston were, perhaps, equally 
 distinguished. The former, as all the world
 
 Certain Suspicions are Excited IB 
 
 knows, had had a brilliant career in Afghanis- 
 tan, in Egypt, Burmah, Tirah, the Transvaal, 
 and in France, and now held an appointment as 
 inspector of artillery. 
 
 The latter was a man of entirely different 
 stamp. As he spoke he gesticulated slightly, and 
 no second glance was needed to realise that he 
 was a thorough-going cosmopolitan. 
 
 By many years of life on the Continent he 
 had acquired a half-foreign appearance. Indeed, 
 a keen observer would probably have noticed 
 that his clothes had been cut by a foreign tailor, 
 and that his boots, long, narrow and rather 
 square-toed, bore the stamp of the Italian boot- 
 maker. When he made any humorous remark 
 he had the habit of slightly closing the left eye 
 in order to emphasise it, while he usually walked 
 with his left hand behind his back, and was 
 hardly ever seen without a .cigarette. Those 
 cigarettes were one of his idiosyncrasies. They 
 were delicious, of a brand unobtainable by the 
 public, and made from tobacco grown in one of 
 the Balkan States. With them he had, both be- 
 fore the war and after, been constantly supplied 
 by a certain European sovereign whose personal 
 friend he was. They bore the royal crown and 
 cipher, but even to his most intimate acquain- 
 tance Walter Fetherston had never betraye(J
 
 12 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 the reason why he was the recipient of so many 
 favours from the monarch in question. 
 
 Easy-going to a degree, full of open-hearted 
 bonhomie, possessing an unruffled temper, and 
 apparently without a single care in all the world, 
 he seldom, if ever, spoke of himself. He never 
 mentioned either his own doings or his friends'. 
 He was essentially a mysterious man a man of 
 moods and of strong prejudices. 
 
 More than one person who had met him cas- 
 ually had hinted that his substantial income was 
 derived from sources that would not bear in- 
 vestigation that he was mixed up with certain 
 financial adventurers. Others declared that he 
 was possessed of a considerable fortune that had 
 been left him by an uncle who had been a dealer 
 in precious stones in Hatton Garden. The 
 truth was, however, that Walter Fetherston was 
 a writer of popular novels, and from their sale 
 alone he derived a handsome income. 
 
 The mystery stories of Walter Fetherston 
 were world-famous. Wherever the English 
 language was spoken this shrewd-eyed, smiling 
 man's books were read, while translations of 
 them appeared as fewlletons in various lan- 
 guages in the principal Continental journals. 
 One could scarcely take up an English news- 
 paper without seeing mention of his name, for
 
 Certain Suspicions are Excited 13 
 
 he was one of the most popular authors of the 
 day. 
 
 It is a generally accepted axiom that a public 
 man cannot afford to be modest in these go-ahead 
 days of " boom." Yet Fetherston was one of 
 the most retiring of men. English society had 
 tried in vain to allure him he courted no per- 
 sonal popularity. Beyond his quiet-spoken 
 literary agent, who arranged his affairs and took 
 financial responsibility from his shoulders, his 
 publishers, and perhaps half a dozen intimate 
 friends, he was scarcely recognised in his true 
 character. Indeed, his whereabouts were seldom 
 known save to his agent and his only brother, 
 so elusive was he and so careful to establish a 
 second self. 
 
 He had never married. It was whispered 
 that he had once had a serious affair of the heart 
 abroad. But that was a matter of long ago. 
 
 Shoals of invitations arrived at his London 
 clubs each season, but they usually reached him 
 in some out-of-the-world corner of Europe, and 
 he would read them with a smile and cast them 
 to the winds. 
 
 He took the keenest delight in evading the 
 world that pressed him. His curious hatred of 
 his own popularity was to everyone a mystery. 
 His intimate friends, of whom Fred Tredennick
 
 4 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 was one, had whispered that, in order to efface 
 his identity, he was known in certain circles 
 abroad by the name of Maltwood. This was 
 quite true. In London he was a member of 
 White's and the Devonshire as Fetherston. 
 There was a reason why on the Continent and 
 elsewhere he should pass as Mr. Maltwood, but 
 his friends could never discover it, so carefully 
 did he conceal it. 
 
 Walter Fetherston was a writer of breathless 
 mystery but he was the essence of mystery him- 
 self. Once the reader took up a book of his 
 he never laid it down until he had read the final 
 chapter. You, my reader, have more than once 
 found yourself beneath his strange spell. And 
 what was the secret of his success? He had been 
 asked by numberless interviewers, and to them 
 all he had made the same stereotyped reply: 
 " I live the mysteries I write," 
 
 He seemed annoyed by his own success. 
 Other writers suffered from that complaint 
 known as " swelled head," but Walter Fether- 
 ston never. He lived mostly abroad in order to 
 avoid the penalty which all the famous must pay, 
 travelling constantly and known mostly by his 
 assumed name of Maltwood. 
 
 And behind all this some mystery lay. He 
 was essentially a man of secrets.
 
 Certain Suspicions are Excited i$ 
 
 Some people declared that he had married 
 ten years ago, and gave a circumstantial account 
 of how he had wedded the daughter of a noble 
 Spanish house, but that a month later she had 
 been accidentally drowned in the Bay of Fon- 
 tarabia, and that the tragedy had ever preyed 
 upon his mind. But upon his feminine entangle- 
 ments he was ever silent. He was a merry fel- 
 low, full of bright humour, and excellent com- 
 pany. But to the world he wore a mask that 
 was impenetrable. 
 
 At that moment he was shooting with his 
 old friend Tredennick, who lived close to St. 
 Fillans, on the picturesque Loch Earn, when the 
 general, hearing of his presence in the neighbour- 
 hood, had sent him an invitation to accompany 
 him on his inspection. 
 
 Walter had accepted for one reason only. 
 In the invitation the general had remarked that 
 he and his stepdaughter Enid were staying at 
 the Panmure Hotel at Monifieth so well known 
 to golfers and that after the inspection he 
 hoped they would lunch together. 
 
 Now, Walter had met Enid Orlebar six 
 months before at Biarritz, where she had been 
 nursing at the Croix Rouge Hospital in the 
 Hotel du Palais, and the memory of that meet- 
 ing had lingered with him. He had long desired
 
 16 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 to see her again, for her pale beauty had some- 
 how attracted him attracted him in a manner 
 that no woman's face had ever attracted him 
 before. 
 
 Hitherto he had held cynical notions concern- 
 ing love and matrimony, but ever since he had 
 met Enid Orlebar in that winter hotel beside 
 the sea, and had afterwards discovered her to 
 be stepdaughter of Sir Hugh Elcombe, he had 
 found himself reflecting upon his own loneliness. 
 
 At luncheon he was to come face to face 
 with her again. It was of this he was thinking 
 more than of the merits of mountain batteries or 
 the difficulties of limbering or unlimbering. 
 
 " See ! there they are ! " exclaimed the gen- 
 eral, suddenly pointing with his gloved hand. 
 
 Fetherston strained his eyes towards the 
 horizon, but declared that he could detect 
 nothing. 
 
 ' They're lying behind that rising ground to 
 the left of the magazine yonder," declared the 
 general, whose keen vision had so often served 
 him in good stead. Then, turning on his heel 
 and scanning the grey horizon seaward, he 
 added: " They're going to fire out on to the Gaa 
 between those two lighthouses on Buddon Ness. 
 By Jove!" he laughed, "the men in them will 
 get a bit of a shock."
 
 Certain Suspicions are Excited 17 
 
 " I shouldn't care much to be there, sir," re- 
 marked Tredennick. 
 
 " No," laughed the general. " But really 
 there's no danger except that we're just in the 
 line of their fire." 
 
 So they struck off to the left and approached 
 the position by a circuitous route, being greeted 
 by the colonel and other officers, to whom the 
 visit of Sir Hugh Elcombe had been a consider- 
 able surprise. 
 
 The serviceable-looking guns were already 
 mounted and in position, the range had been 
 found; the reserves, the ponies and the pipers 
 were lying concealed in a depression close at 
 hand when they arrived. 
 
 The general, after a swift glance around, 
 stood with legs apart and arms folded to watch, 
 while Fetherston and Tredennick, with field- 
 glasses, had halted a little distance away. 
 
 A sharp word of command was given, when 
 next instant the first gun boomed forth, and 
 a shell went screaming through the air towards 
 the low range of sand-hills in the distance. 
 
 The general grunted. He was a man of few 
 words, but a typical British officer of the type 
 which has made the Empire and won the war 
 against the Huns. He glanced at the watch
 
 1 8 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 upon his wrist, adjusted his monocle, and said 
 something in an undertone to the captain. 
 
 The firing proceeded, while Fetherston, his 
 ears dulled by the constant roar, watched the 
 bursting shells with interest. 
 
 " I wonder what the lighthouse men think of 
 it now? " he laughed, turning to his friend. " A 
 misdirected shot would send them quickly to 
 kingdom come ! " 
 
 Time after time the range was increased, un- 
 til, at last, the shells were dropped just at the 
 spot intended. As each left the gun it shrieked 
 overhead, while the flash could be seen long be- 
 fore the report reached the ear. 
 
 ;< We'll see in a few moments how quickly 
 they can get away," the general said, as he ap- 
 proached Fetherston. 
 
 Then the order was given to cease fire. 
 Words of command sounded, and were repeated 
 in the rear, where ponies and men lay hidden. 
 The guns were run back under cover, and with 
 lightning rapidity dismounted, taken to pieces, 
 and loaded upon the backs of the ponies, together 
 with the leather ammunition cases which looked 
 like men's suit cases and other impedimenta. 
 
 The order was given to march, and, headed 
 by the pipers, who commenced their inspiring 
 skirl to the beat of the drums, they moved away
 
 Certain Suspicions are Excited 19 
 
 over the rough, broken ground, the general 
 standing astraddle and watching it all through 
 his monocle with critical eye, and keeping up a 
 fire of sarcastic comment directed at the colonel. 
 
 ' Why! " he cried sharply in his low, strident 
 voice, "what's that bay there? Too weak for 
 the work no good. You want better stuff than 
 that. An axle yonder not packed properly! 
 . . . And look at that black pony came out of 
 a governess-cart, I should think! . . . Hey, you 
 man there, you don't want to hang on that 
 pack! Men get lazy and want the pony to help 
 
 them along. And you " he cried, as a pony, 
 
 heavily laden with part of a gun, came down 
 an almost perpendicular incline. " Let that ani- 
 mal find his way down alone. Do you hear? " 
 
 Then, after much manoeuvring, he caused 
 them to take up another position, unlimber their 
 guns, and fire. 
 
 When this had been accomplished he called 
 the officers together and, his monocle in his eye, 
 severely criticised their performance, declaring 
 that they had exposed themselves so fully to the 
 enemy that ere they had had time to fire they 
 would have been shelled out of their position. 
 
 The spare ammunition was exposed all over 
 the place, some of the reserves were not under 
 cover, and the battery commander so exposed
 
 20 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 himself that he'd have been a dead man before 
 the first shot. " You must do better than this 
 much better. That's all." 
 
 Then the four walked across to the Panmure 
 Hotel at Monifieth. 
 
 Walter Fetherston held his breath. His lips 
 were pressed tightly together, his brows con- 
 tracted. He was again to meet Enid Orlebar. 
 
 He shot a covert glance at the general walk- 
 ing at his side. In his eyes showed an unusual 
 expression, half of suspicion, half of curiosity. 
 
 Next instant, however, it had vanished, and 
 he laughed loudly at a story Tredennick was 
 telling.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE COMING OF A STRANGER 
 
 ENID was standing on the steps of the hotel when 
 the men arrived. 
 
 For a second Walter glanced into her splen- 
 did eyes, and then bowed over her hand in his 
 foreign way, a murmured expression of pleasure 
 escaping his lips. 
 
 About twenty-two, tall and slim, she pre- 
 sented a complete and typical picture of the out- 
 door girl, dressed as she was in a grey jumper 
 trimmed with purple, a short golfing skirt, her 
 tweed hat to match trimmed with the feathers 
 of a cock pheasant. 
 
 Essentially a sportswoman, she could handle 
 gun or rod, ride to hounds, or drive a motor- 
 car with equal skill, and as stepdaughter of Sir 
 Hugh she had had experience on the Indian 
 frontier and in Egypt. 
 
 Her father had been British Minister at the 
 Hague, and afterwards at Stockholm, but after 
 his death her mother had married Sir Hugh, and 
 had become Lady Elcombe. Nowadays, how- 
 
 21
 
 22 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 ever, the latter was somewhat of an invalid, and 
 seldom left their London house in Hill Street. 
 Therefore, Enid was usually chaperoned by Mrs. 
 Caldwell, wife of the well-known K.C., and with 
 her she generally spent her winters on the 
 Continent. 
 
 Blanche, Sir Hugh's daughter by his first 
 wife, had married Paul Le Pontois, who had 
 been a captain in the 114th Regiment of Artil- 
 lery of the French Army during the war, and 
 lived with her husband in France. She seldom 
 came to England, though at frequent intervals 
 her father went over to visit her. 
 
 When Walter Fetherston took his seat be- 
 side Enid Orlebar at the luncheon table a flood 
 of strange recollections crowded upon his mind 
 those walks along the Miramar, that excursion 
 to Pampeluna, and those curious facts which she 
 had unwittingly revealed to him in the course of 
 their confidential chats. He remembered their 
 leave-taking, and how, as he had sat in the 
 rapide for Paris, he had made a solemn vow 
 never again to set eyes upon her. 
 
 There was a reason why he should not a 
 strong but mysterious reason. 
 
 Yet he had come there of his own will to 
 meet her again drawn there irresistibly by some 
 unseen influence which she possessed.
 
 The Coming of a Stranger 23 
 
 Was it her beauty that had attracted him? 
 Yes he was compelled to admit that it was. 
 As a rule he avoided the society of women. To 
 his intimates he had laid down the maxim: 
 " Don't marry ; keep a dog if you want a faith- 
 ful companion." And yet he was once again 
 at the side of this fair-faced woman. 
 
 None around the table were aware of their 
 previous meeting, and all were too busy chatter- 
 ing to notice the covert glances which he shot at 
 her. He was noting her great beauty, sitting 
 there entranced by it he, the man of double 
 personality, who, under an assumed name, lived 
 that gay life of the Continent, known in society 
 in twenty different cities, and yet in England 
 practically unknown in his real self. 
 
 Yes, Enid Orlebar was beautiful. Surely 
 there could be few fairer women than she in 
 this our land of fair women! 
 
 Turning upon him, she smiled gaily as she 
 asked whether he had been interested in seeing 
 a mountain battery at work. 
 
 Her fresh face, betraying, as it did, her love 
 of a free, open-air life, was one of those strangely 
 mysterious countenances met only once in a life- 
 time. It seemed to be the quintessence of pain 
 and passion, conflict and agony, desire and de- 
 spair. She was not one of those befrilled,
 
 24 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 fashion-plate dolls that one meets at the after- 
 war crushes and dances, but was austerely simple 
 in dress, with a face which betrayed a spiritual 
 nobility, the very incarnation of modern woman- 
 hood, alive with modern self-knowledge, modern 
 weariness and modern sadness. 
 
 Her beautiful hair, worn plain and smooth, 
 was black as night wonderful hair. But still 
 more wonderful were those great, dark, velvety 
 eyes, deep and unfathomable. In them the 
 tragedy of life was tumultuously visible, yet they 
 were serene, self-possessed, even steady in their 
 quiet simplicity. To describe her features is 
 not an easy task. They were clear-cut, with a 
 purity of the lines of the nose and brow seldom 
 seen in a woman's face, dark, well-arched eye- 
 brows, a pretty mouth which had just escaped 
 extreme sensuousness. Cheeks soft and deli- 
 cately moulded, a chin pointed, a skin remark- 
 able for its fineness and its clear pallor, the 
 whole aspect of her face being that of sweetness 
 combined with nobility and majesty. In it there 
 was no dominant expression, for it seemed to be 
 a mask waiting to be stirred into life. 
 
 Fetherston had known Sir Hugh slightly for 
 several years, but as Enid had been so much 
 abroad with Mrs. Caldwell, he had never met 
 her until that accidental encounter in Biarritz.
 
 The Coming of a Stranger 25 
 
 :< We've been up here six weeks," she was tell- 
 ing Fetherston. " Father always gets a lot of 
 golf up here, you know, and I'm rather fond 
 of it." 
 
 " I fear I'm too much of a foreigner nowa- 
 days to appreciate the game," Walter laughed. 
 " Last season some Italians in Rome formed a 
 club the usual set of ultra-smart young counts 
 and marquises but when they found that it en- 
 tailed the indignity of walking several miles 
 they declared it to be a game only fit for the 
 populace, and at once disbanded th<& association." 
 
 The men were discussing the work of the 
 battery, for four of the officers had been invited, 
 and the point raised was the yange of mountain 
 guns. 
 
 Walter Fetherston glared at the general 
 through his pince-nez with a curious expression, 
 but he did not join in the conversation. 
 
 Enid's eyes met his, and the pair exchanged 
 curiously significant glances. 
 
 He bent to pick up his serviette, and in do- 
 ing so he whispered to her: " I must see you 
 outside for a moment before I go. Go out, and 
 I'll join you." 
 
 Therefore, when the meal had concluded, the 
 girl went forth into the secluded garden at the 
 rear of the hotel, where in a few moments the
 
 26 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 man joined her at a spot where they could not 
 be overlooked. 
 
 She turned towards him, separate, remote, 
 incongruous, her dark eyes showing an angry 
 flash in them. 
 
 " Why have you come here? " she demanded 
 with indignation. The whole aspect of her face 
 was tragic. 
 
 " To see you again," was his brief reply. 
 " Before we parted at Biarritz you lied to me," 
 he added in a hard tone. 
 
 She held her breath, staring straight into 
 his eyes. 
 
 "I I don't understand you!" she stam- 
 mered. " You are here to torment to perse- 
 cute me ! " 
 
 " I asked you a question, Enid, but in re- 
 sponse you told me a deliberate lie. Think 
 recall that circumstance, and tell me the truth," 
 he said very quietly. 
 
 She was silent for a moment. Then, with 
 her mouth drawn to hardness, she replied: " Yes, 
 it is true I lied to you, just as you have lied 
 to me. Remember what you told me that moonlit 
 night when we walked by the sea towards the 
 Grotto of Love. I was a fool to have believed 
 in you to have trusted you as I did! You left
 
 The Coming of a Stranger 27 
 
 me, and, though I wrote time after time to your 
 club, you refused to send me a single line." 
 
 " Because because, Enid, I dared not," re- 
 plied her companion. 
 
 " Why not? " she demanded quickly. " You 
 told me that you loved me, yet yet your own 
 actions have shown that you lied to me ! " 
 
 " No," he protested in a low, earnest, hoarse 
 voice ; " I told you the truth, Enid, but " 
 
 " But what? " she interrupted in quickly 
 earnestness. 
 
 ' Well," he replied after a brief pause, " the 
 fact is that I am compelled to wear a mask, even 
 to you, the woman I love. I cannot tell you the 
 truth I cannot, dearest, for your own sake." 
 
 " And you expect me to believe this lame 
 story eh?" she laughed. She was pale and 
 fragile, yet she seemed to expand and to dilate 
 with force and energy. 
 
 " Enid," he answered in a low voice, with 
 honesty in his eyes, " I would rather sacrifice my 
 great love for you than betray the trust I hold 
 most sacred. So great is my love for you, rather 
 would I never look upon your dear face again 
 than reveal to you the tragic truth and bring 
 upon you unhappiness and despair." 
 
 ' Walter," she replied in a trembling voice, 
 looking straight into his countenance with those
 
 28 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 wonderful dark eyes wherein her soul brimmed 
 over with weary emotion and fatigued passion, 
 " I repeat all that I told you on that calm night 
 beside the sea. I love you; I think of you day 
 by day, hour by hour. But you have lied to me, 
 and therefore I hate myself for having so fool- 
 ishly placed my trust in you." 
 
 He had resolved to preserve his great secret 
 a secret that none should know. 
 
 " Very well," he sighed, shrugging his 
 shoulders. ' These recriminations are really all 
 useless. Ah, if you only knew the truth, Enid! 
 If I only dared to reveal to you the hideous facts. 
 But I refuse they are too tragic, too terrible. 
 Better that we should part now, and that you 
 should remain in ignorance better by far, for 
 you. You believe that I am deceiving you. Well, 
 I'm frank and admit that I am; but it is with a 
 distinct purpose for your own sake." 
 
 He held forth his hand, and slowly she took 
 it. In silence he bowed over it, his lips com- 
 pressed; then, turning upon his heel, he went 
 down the gravelled walk back to the hotel, which, 
 some ten minutes later, he left with Fred Tre- 
 dennick, catching the train back to Dundee and 
 on to Perth. 
 
 He was in no way a man to wear his heart 
 upon his sleeve, therefore he chatted gaily with
 
 The Coming of a Stranger 29 
 
 his friend and listened to Fred's extravagant ad- 
 miration of Enid's beauty. He congratulated 
 himself that his old friend was in ignorance of 
 the truth. 
 
 A curious incident occurred at the hotel that 
 same evening, however, which, had Walter been 
 aware of it, would probably have caused him 
 considerable uneasiness and alarm. Just before 
 seven o'clock a tall, rather thin, middle-aged, 
 narrow-eyed man, dressed in dark grey tweeds, 
 entered the hall of the hotel and inquired for 
 Henry, the head waiter. He was well dressed 
 and bore an almost professional air. 
 
 The white-headed old man quickly appeared, 
 when the stranger, whose moustache was care- 
 fully trimmed and who wore a ruby ring upon 
 his white hand, made an anxious inquiry whether 
 Fetherston, whom he minutely described, had 
 been there that day. At first the head waiter 
 hesitated and was uncommunicative, but, the 
 stranger having uttered a few low words, 
 Henry's manner instantly changed. He started, 
 looked in wonder into the stranger's face, and, 
 taking him into the smoking-room at that mo- 
 ment unoccupied he allowed himself to be 
 closely questioned regarding the general and his 
 stepdaughter, as well as the man who had that 
 day been their guest. The stranger was a man
 
 30 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 of quick actions, and his inquiries were sharp 
 and to the point. 
 
 " You say that Mr. Fetherston met the young 
 lady outside after luncheon, and they had an 
 argument in secret, eh? " asked the stranger. 
 
 Henry replied in the affirmative, declaring 
 that he unfortunately could not overhear the 
 subject under discussion. But he believed the 
 pair had quarrelled. 
 
 "And where has Mr. Fetherston gone?" 
 asked his keen-eyed questioner. 
 
 " He is, I believe, the guest of -Major Tre- 
 dennick, who lives on the other side of Perthshire 
 at Invermay on Loch Earn." 
 
 "And the young lady goes back to Hill 
 Street with her stepfather, eh? " 
 
 " On Wednesday." 
 
 "Good!" was the stranger's reply. Then, 
 thanking the head waiter for the information in 
 a sharp, businesslike voice, and handing him five 
 shillings, he took train back from Monifieth to 
 Dundee, and went direct to the chief post-office. 
 
 From there he dispatched a carefully con- 
 structed cipher telegram to an address in the 
 Boulevard Anspach, in Brussels, afterwards 
 lighting an excellent cigar and strolling along 
 the busy street with an air of supreme self-sat- 
 isfaction.
 
 The Coming of a Stranger 31 
 
 " If this man, Fetherston, has discovered the 
 truth, as I fear he has done," the hard-faced man 
 muttered to himself, " then by his action to-day 
 he has sealed his own doom ! and Er\d Ovlebar 
 herself will silence him I "
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 INTEODUCES DOCTOR WEIRMABSH 
 
 THREE days had elapsed. 
 
 In the dingy back room of a dull, drab house 
 in the Vauxhall Bridge Road, close to Victoria 
 Station in London, the narrow-eyed man who 
 had so closely questioned old Henry at the Pan- 
 mure Hotel, sat at an old mahogany writing- 
 table reading a long letter written upon thin 
 foreign notepaper. 
 
 The incandescent gas-lamp shed a cold glare 
 across the room. On one side of the smoke- 
 grimed apartment was a shabby leather couch, on 
 the other side a long nest of drawers, while be- 
 side the fireplace was an expanding gas-bracket 
 placed in such a position that it could be used 
 to examine anyone seated in the big arm-chair. 
 Pervading the dingy apartment was a faint smell 
 of carbolic, for it was a consulting-room, and 
 the man so intent upon the letter was Dr. Weir- 
 marsh, the hard-working practitioner so well 
 known among the lower classes in Pimlico. 
 
 Those who pass along the Vauxhall Bridge 
 Road know well that house with its curtains yel- 
 
 32
 
 Introduces Doctor Weirmarsh 33 
 
 low with smoke the one which stands back be- 
 hind a small strip of smoke-begrimed garden. 
 Over the gate is a red lamp, and upon the rail- 
 ings a brass plate with the name : " Mr. Weir- 
 marsh, Surgeon." 
 
 About three years previously he had bought 
 the practice from old Dr. Bland, but he lived 
 alone, a silent and unsociable man, with a deaf 
 old housekeeper, although he had achieved a con- 
 siderable reputation among his patients in the 
 neighbouring by-streets. But his practice was 
 not wholly confined to the poorer classes, for he 
 was often consulted by well-dressed members of 
 the foreign colony on account, probably, of his 
 linguistic attainments. A foreigner with an im- 
 perfect knowledge of English naturally prefers 
 a doctor to whom he can speak in his own tongue. 
 Therefore, as Weirmarsh spoke French, Italian 
 and Spanish with equal fluency, it was not sur- 
 prising that he had formed quite a large practice 
 among foreign residents. 
 
 His appearance, however, was the reverse 
 of prepossessing, and his movements were often 
 most erratic. About his aquiline face was a 
 shrewd and distrustful expression, while his 
 keen, dark eyes, too narrowly set, were curiously 
 shifty and searching. When absent, as he often 
 was, a young fellow named Shipley acted as
 
 34 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 locum tenens, but so eccentric was he that even 
 Shipley knew nothing of the engagements which 
 took him from home so frequently. 
 
 George Weirmarsh was a man of few friends 
 and fewer words. He lived for himself alone, 
 devoting himself assiduously to his practice, and 
 doing much painstaking writing at the table 
 whereat he now sat, or else, when absent, travel- 
 ling swiftly with aims that were ever mysterious. 
 
 He had had a dozen or so patients that eve- 
 ning, but the last had gone, and he had settled 
 himself to read the letter which had arrived when 
 his little waiting-room had been full of people. 
 
 As he read he made scribbled notes on a piece 
 of paper upon his blotting-pad, his thin, white 
 hand, delicate as a woman's, bearing that splen- 
 did ruby ring, his one possession in which he 
 took a pride. 
 
 " Ah ! " he remarked to himself in a hard 
 tone of sarcasm, "what fools the shrewdest of 
 men are sometimes over a woman! So at last 
 he's fallen like the others and the secret will 
 be mine. Most excellent! After all, every man 
 has one weak point in his armour, and I was not 
 mistaken." 
 
 Then he paused, and, leaning his chin upon 
 his hand, looked straight before him, deep in 
 reflection.
 
 Introduces Doctor Weirmarsh 35 
 
 " I have few fears very few," he remarked 
 to himself, " but the greatest is of Walter 
 Fetherston. What does he know? that's the 
 chief question. If he has discovered the truth 
 if he knows my real name and who I am then 
 the game's up, and my hest course is to leave 
 England. And yet there is another way," he 
 went on, speaking slowly to himself " to close 
 his lips. Dead men tell no tales." 
 
 He sat for a long time, his narrow-set eyes 
 staring into space, contemplating a crime. As 
 a medical man, he knew a dozen ingenious ways 
 by which Walter Fetherston might be sent to 
 his grave in circumstances that would appear 
 perfectly natural. His gaze at last wandered 
 to the book-case opposite, and became centred 
 upon a thick, brown-covered, dirty volume by 
 a writer named Taylor. That book contained 
 much that might be of interest to him in the 
 near future. 
 
 Of a sudden the handle of the door turned, 
 and Mrs. Kelsey, the old housekeeper, in rusty 
 black, admitted Enid Orlebar without the cere- 
 mony of asking permission to enter. 
 
 The girl was dressed in a pearl grey and pink 
 sports coat, with a large black hat, and carried 
 a silver chain handbag. Around her throat was
 
 36 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 a white feather boa, while her features were half 
 concealed by the veil she wore. 
 
 " Ah, my dear young lady," cried Weirmarsh, 
 rising quickly and greeting her, while next mo- 
 ment he turned to his table and hastily concealed 
 the foreign letter and notes, " I had quite for- 
 gotten that you were to consult me. Pray for- 
 give me." 
 
 ' There is nothing to forgive," the beautiful 
 girl replied in a low, colourless voice, when the 
 housekeeper had disappeared, and she had seated 
 herself in the big leather arm-chair in which so 
 many patients daily sat. " You ordered me to 
 come here to you, and I have come." 
 
 "Against your will, eh?" he asked slowly, 
 with a strange look in his keen eyes. 
 
 " I am perfectly well now. I do not see why 
 my stepfather should betray such anxiety on my 
 account." 
 
 ' The general is greatly concerned about 
 you," Weirmarsh said, seated cross-legged at his 
 writing-chair, toying with his pen and looking 
 into the girl's handsome face. 
 
 " He wished me to see you. That is why I 
 wrote to you." 
 
 ' Well,'* she said, wavering beneath his sharp 
 glance, " I am here. What do you wish? " 
 
 " I wish to have a little private talk with you,
 
 Introduces Doctor Weirmarsh 37 
 
 Miss Enid," he replied thoughtfully, stroking 
 his small greyish moustache, " a talk concerning 
 your own welfare." 
 
 " But I am not ill," she cried. " I don't see 
 why you should desire me to come to you to- 
 night." 
 
 " I have my own reasons, my dear young 
 lady," was the man's firm response, his eyes 
 fixed immovably upon hers. " And I think you 
 know me well enough to be aware that when Dr. 
 Weirmarsh sets his mind upon a thing he is not 
 easily turned aside." 
 
 A slight, almost imperceptible, shudder ran 
 through her. But Weirmarsh detected it, and 
 knew that this girl of extraordinary and mys- 
 terious charm was as wax in his hands. In the 
 presence of the man who had cast such a strange 
 spell about her she was utterly helpless. There 
 was no suggestion of hypnotism she herself 
 scouted the idea yet ever since Sir Hugh had 
 taken her to consult this man of medicine at a 
 small suburban villa, five years ago, he had en- 
 tered her life never again to leave it. 
 
 She realised herself irresistibly in his power 
 whenever she felt his presence near her. At his 
 bidding she came and went, and against her bet- 
 ter nature she acted as he commanded. 
 
 He had cured her of an attack of nerves five
 
 38 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 years ago, but she had ever since been beneath 
 his hated thraldom. His very eyes fascinated 
 her with their sinister expression, yet to her 
 he could do no wrong. 
 
 A thousand times she had endeavoured to 
 break free from that strong but unseen influence, 
 but she always became weak and easily led as 
 soon as she fell beneath the extraordinary power 
 which the obscure doctor possessed. Time after 
 time he called her to his side, as on this occasion, 
 on pretence of prescribing for her, and yet with 
 an ulterior motive. Enid Orlebar was a useful 
 tool in the hands of this man who was so un- 
 scrupulous. 
 
 She sighed, passing her gloved hand wearily 
 across her hot brow. Strange how curiously his 
 presence always affected her! 
 
 She had read in books of the mysteries of 
 hypnotic suggestion, but she was far too practical 
 to believe in that This was not hypnotism, she 
 often declared within herself, but some remark- 
 able and unknown power possessed by this man 
 who, beneath the guise of the hard-working sur- 
 geon, was engaged in schemes of remarkable 
 ingenuity and wondrous magnitude. 
 
 He held her in the palm of his hand. He 
 held her for life or for death. 
 
 To her stepfather she had, times without
 
 Introduces Doctor Weirmarsh 4 1 
 
 '. hall I speak plainly? " asked the man in 
 eyed doi M . . f 
 
 , J % lower she was. Will you forgive me if 
 
 w intrude myself upon your private affairs 
 -r-, . , ve you a few words of advice? " 
 
 , lank you, Dr. Weirmarsh, but I cannot 
 ciation b- J . . e 
 
 ,t my private affairs are any concern ot 
 in compl , ,. , ..i i , TT 
 
 TTM1 , she replied with some hauteur. Mow 
 to Hill , , j . . i i j.u 
 
 . d she endeavoured in vain to break those 
 
 den. Thai . ,, . , 
 
 , \ a very sincere friend of your step- 
 was no dom.,, . ,, . , , , 
 
 * - sincere friend ot yours also, 
 was ever a mystery. , T . . , 
 
 .. T _ 'ness. It is because 
 
 1 see bv your face thacj . i , 
 
 ivise you but, ot 
 
 creat improvement in you, yo .., i j 
 
 "^vitiiouL conclufl- 
 less, far from well," the man said, . . -, 
 
 n fixed upon 
 fixed upon her pale countenance. ,. 
 
 " Dr. Weirmarsh," she protested, " this con- 
 stant declaration that I am ill is awful. I tell 
 you I am quite as well as you are yourself." 
 
 "Ah! there, I'm afraid, you are mistaken, 
 my dear young lady," he replied. ' You may 
 feel well, but you are not in quite such good 
 health as you imagine. The general is greatly 
 concerned about you, and for that reason I 
 wished to see you to-night," he added with a smile 
 as, bending towards her, he asked her to remove 
 her glove. 
 
 He took her wrist, holding his stop-watch in
 
 38 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 years ago, but she had ever since been bust as 
 his hated thraldom. His very eyes fasJe run 
 her with their sinister expression, yet 
 he could do no wrong. nd yes- 
 
 A thousand times she had endeavc 
 break free from that strong but unseen in exotic 
 but she always became weak and easiljth the 
 soon as she fell beneath the extraordinary 
 which the obscure doctor possessed. Ti end of 
 time he called her to his side, as on this c^ , 
 on pretence of prescribing for her, ar;d y^:>w." 
 an ulterior motive. En^ opening her eyes in 
 tool in the hands Dictatorial manner, 
 scrupulous. and he hesitated, still gazing 
 
 She sighed^ose strangely sinister eyes of his. 
 across A hpftj ss Enid, because a complete change 
 will be beneficial to you in more ways than one," 
 he replied with an air of mystery. 
 
 " I don't understand you," she declared. 
 
 " Probably not," he laughed, with that cyni- 
 cal air which so irritated her. She hated herself 
 for coming to that detestable house of grim 
 silence ; yet his word to her was a command which 
 she felt impelled by some strange force to fulfil 
 with child-like obedience. "But I assure you I 
 am advising you for your own benefit, my dear 
 young lady." 
 
 "In what way?"
 
 Introduces Doctor Weirmarsh 4 1 
 
 " Shall I speak plainly? " asked the man in 
 whose power she was. ' Will you forgive me if 
 I so far intrude myself upon your private affairs 
 as to give you a few words of advice ? " 
 
 " Thank you, Dr. Weirmarsh, but I cannot 
 see that my private affairs are any concern of 
 yours," she replied with some hauteur. How 
 often had she endeavoured in vain to break those 
 invisible shackles? 
 
 " I am a very sincere friend of your step- 
 father, and I hope a sincere friend of yours also," 
 he said with perfect coolness. " It is because 
 of this I presume to advise you but, of 
 course " And he hesitated, without conclud- 
 ing his sentence. His eyes were again fixed upon 
 her as though gauging accurately the extent of 
 his influence upon her. 
 
 " And what do you advise, pray? " she asked, 
 " It seems that you have called me to you to- 
 night in order to intrude upon my private af- 
 fairs," she added, with her eyes flashing resent- 
 ment. 
 
 " Well yes, Miss Enid," he answered, his 
 manner changing slightly. ' The fact is, I wish 
 to warn you against what must inevitably bring 
 disaster both upon yourself and your family." 
 
 "Disaster?" she echoed. "I don't follow 
 you."
 
 42 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 " Then let me speak a little more plainly," 
 he replied, his strange, close-set eyes staring into 
 hers until she quivered beneath his cold, hard 
 gaze. " You have recently become acquainted 
 with Walter Fetherston. You met him at Biar- 
 ritz six months ago, and on Monday last he 
 lunched with you up at Monifieth. After 
 luncheon you met him in the garden of the hotel, 
 and " 
 
 "How do you know all this?" she gasped, 
 startled, yet fascinated by his gaze. 
 
 " My dear young lady," he laughed, " it is 
 my business to know certain things that is one 
 of them." 
 
 She held her breath for a moment. 
 
 " And pray how does that concern you ? 
 What interest have you in my acquain- 
 tances?" 
 
 " A very keen one," was the prompt reply. 
 * That man is dangerous to you and to your 
 family. The reason why I have asked you here 
 to-night is to tell you that you must never meet 
 him again. If you value your life, and that of 
 your mother and her husband, avoid him as you 
 would some venomous reptile. He is your most 
 deadly enemy." 
 
 The girl was silent for a moment. Her great, 
 dark eyes were fixed upon the threadbare car-
 
 Introduces Doctor Weirmarsh 43 
 
 pet. What he told her was disconcerting, yet, 
 knowing instinctively, as she did, how passion- 
 ately Walter loved her, she could not bring her- 
 self to believe that he was really her enemy. 
 
 " No, Dr. Weirmarsh," she replied, raising 
 her eyes again to his, " you are quite mistaken. 
 I know Walter Fetherston better than you. 
 Your allegation is false. You have told me this 
 because because you have some motive in part- 
 ing us." 
 
 ' Yes," he said frankly, " I have a strong 
 motive" 
 
 ' You do not conceal it? " 
 
 " No," he answered. ' Were I a younger 
 man you might, perhaps, accuse me of scheming 
 to wriggle myself into your good graces, Miss 
 Enid. But I am getting old, and, moreover, I'm 
 a confirmed bachelor, therefore you cannot, I 
 think, accuse me of such ulterior motives. No, 
 I only point out this peril for your family's 
 sake and your own." 
 
 " Is Mr. Fetherston such an evil genius, 
 then? " she asked. ' The world knows him as a 
 writer of strictly moral, if exciting, books." 
 
 * The books are one thing the man himself 
 another. Some men reflect their own souls in 
 their works, others write but canting hypocrisy. 
 It is so with Walter Fetherston the man who
 
 44 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 has a dual personality and whose private life will 
 not bear the light of publicity." 
 
 " You wish to prejudice me against him, 
 eh? " she said in a hard tone. 
 
 " I merely wish to advise you for your good, 
 my dear young lady," he said. "It is not for 
 me, your medical man, to presume to dictate to 
 you, I know. But the general is my dear friend, 
 therefore I feel it my duty to reveal to you the 
 bitter truth." 
 
 Thoughts of Walter Fetherston, the man 
 in whose eyes had shone the light of true honesty 
 when he spoke, arose within her. She was well 
 aware of all the curious gossip concerning the 
 popular writer, whose eccentricities were so fre- 
 quently hinted at in the gossipy newspapers, 
 but she was convinced that she knew the real 
 Fetherston behind the mask he so constantly 
 wore. 
 
 This man before her was deceiving her. He 
 had some sinister motive in thus endeavouring to 
 plant seeds of suspicion within her mind. It was 
 plain that he was endeavouring in some way to 
 secure his own ends. Those ends, however, were 
 a complete and inexplicable mystery. 
 
 " I cannot see that my friendship for Mr. 
 Fetherston can have any interest for you," she 
 replied. " Let us talk of something else."
 
 Introduces Doctor Weirmarsh 45 
 
 " But it has," he persisted. ' You must never 
 meet that man again you hear! never other- 
 wise you will discover to your cost that my seri- 
 ous warning has a foundation only too solid; 
 that he is your bitterest enemy posing as your 
 most affectionate friend." 
 
 " I don't believe you, Dr. Weirmarsh! " she 
 cried resentfully, springing to her feet. " I'll 
 never believe you ! " 
 
 " My dear young lady," the man exclaimed, 
 " you are really quite unnerved to-night. The 
 general was quite right. I will mix you a draught 
 like the one you had before perfectly innocuous 
 something to soothe those unstrung nerves of 
 yours." And beneath his breath, as his cruel 
 eyes twinkled, he added: " Something to bring 
 reason to those warped and excited senses 
 something to sow within you suspicion and hatred 
 of Walter Fetherston." 
 
 Then aloud he added, as he sprang to his 
 feet : " Excuse me for a moment while I go and 
 dispense it. I'll be back in a few seconds." 
 
 He left the room when, quick as lightning, 
 Enid stretched forth her hand to the drawer of 
 the writing-table into which she had seen the 
 doctor toss the foreign letter he had been read- 
 ing when she entered.
 
 46 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 She drew it out, and scanned eagerly a dozen 
 or so of the closely- written lines in Spanish. 
 
 Then she replaced it with trembling fingers, 
 and, closing the drawer, sat staring straight be- 
 fore her dumbfounded, rigid. 
 
 What was the mystery? 
 
 By the knowledge she had obtained she be- 
 came forearmed even defiant. In the light of 
 that astounding discovery, she now read the mys- 
 terious Dr. Weirmarsh as she would an open 
 book. She held her breath, and an expression 
 of hatred escaped her lips. 
 
 When, a moment later, he brought her a 
 pale-yellow draught in a graduated glass, she 
 took it from his hand, and, drawing herself up in 
 defiance, flung its contents behind her into the 
 fireplace. She believed that at last she had con- 
 quered that strangely evil influence which, eman- 
 ating from this obscure practitioner, had fallen 
 upon her. 
 
 But the man only shrugged his shoulders and, 
 turning from her, laughed unconcernedly. He 
 knew that he held her in bonds stronger than 
 steel, that his will was hers for good or for 
 evil.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 REVEALS TEMPTATION 
 
 " I TELL you it can't be done the risk is far too 
 great!" declared Sir Hugh Elcombe, standing 
 with his back to the fireplace in his cosy little 
 den in Hill Street at noon next day. 
 
 " It must be done," answered Dr. Weirmarsh, 
 who sat in the deep green leather arm-chair, with 
 the tips of his fingers placed together. 
 
 The general glanced suspiciously at the door 
 to reassure himself that it was closed. 
 
 ' You ask too much," he said. Then, in a 
 decisive voice, while his fingers toyed nervously 
 with his monocle, he added, " I have resolved 
 to end it once and for all." 
 
 The doctor looked at him with a strange ex- 
 pression in those cold, keen eyes of his and smiled, 
 " I fear, Sir Hugh, that if you attempt to carry 
 out such a decision you will find insuperable 
 difficulties," he said quietly. 
 
 ' I desire no good advice from you, Weir- 
 marsh," the old general snapped. " I fully real- 
 ise my position. You have cornered me cut off 
 
 47
 
 48 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 my retreat so I have placed my back against 
 the wall." 
 
 " Good! And how will such an attitude 
 benefit you, pray? " 
 
 " Understand, I am in no mood to be taunted 
 by you!" the old man cried, with an angry 
 flash in his eyes. ' You very cleverly enticed 
 me into the net, and now you are closing it 
 about me." 
 
 " My dear Sir Hugh," replied the doctor, 
 " ours was a mere business transaction, surely. 
 Carry your thoughts back to six years ago. 
 After your brilliant military career you returned 
 from India and found yourself, as so many of 
 your profession find themselves, in very strait- 
 ened circumstances. You were bound to keep up 
 appearances, and, in order to do so, got into 
 the hands of Eli Moser, the moneylender. You 
 married Lady Orlebar, and had entered London 
 society when, of a sudden, the scoundrelly usurer 
 began to put the screw upon you. At that mo- 
 ment you luckily, I think, for yourself met 
 me, and well, I was your salvation, for I 
 pointed out to you an easy way by which to pay 
 your creditors and rearrange your affairs upon 
 a sound financial basis. Indeed, I did it for you. 
 I saved you from the moneylender. Did I 
 not?"
 
 Reveals Temptation 49 
 
 He spoke in a calm, even tone, without once 
 removing his eyes from the man who stood upon 
 the hearthrug with bent head and folded arms. 
 
 " I know, Weirmarsh. It's true that you 
 saved me from bankruptcy but think what 
 penalty I have paid by accepting your terms," 
 he answered in a low, broken voice. ' The devil 
 tempted me, and I fell into your damnable net." 
 
 " I hardly think it necessary for you to put 
 it that way," replied the doctor without the least 
 sign of annoyance. " I showed you how you 
 could secure quite a comfortable income, and you 
 readily enough adopted my suggestion." 
 
 " Readily ! " echoed the fine-looking old sol- 
 dier. " Ah ! you don't know what my decision 
 cost me it has cost me my very life." 
 
 " Nonsense, man," laughed the doctor scorn- 
 fully. ' You got out of the hands of the Jews, 
 and ever since that day you haven't had five 
 minutes' worry over your finances. I promised 
 you I would provide you with an ample income, 
 and " 
 
 " And you've done so, Weirmarsh," cried 
 the old general; " an income far greater than I 
 expected. Yet what do I deserve? " 
 
 " My dear General," said the doctor quite 
 calmly, " you're not yourself to-day ; suffering 
 from a slight attack of remorse, eh? It's a bad
 
 50 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 complaint; I've had it, and I know. But it's 
 like the measles you're very nearly certain to 
 contract it once in a lifetime." 
 
 "Have you no pity for me?" snarled Sir 
 Hugh, glaring at the narrow-eyed man seated 
 before him. " Don't you realise that by this 
 last demand of yours you've driven me into a 
 corner? " 
 
 Weirmarsh's brows contracted slightly, and 
 he shot an evil glance at the man before him 
 the man who was his victim. " But you must do 
 it. You still want money and lots of it, don't 
 you? " he said in a low, decisive voice. 
 
 "I refuse, I tell you!" cried Sir Hugh 
 angrily. 
 
 "Hush! Someone may overhear," the doc- 
 tor said. " Is Enid at home ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 ' I saw her last night, as you wished. She 
 is not well. Her nerves are still in an extremely 
 weak state," Weirmarsh said, in order to change 
 the topic of conversation. " I think you should 
 send her abroad out of the way to the South 
 somewhere." 
 
 " So she told me. I shall try and get Mrs. 
 Caldwell to take her to Sicily if you consider 
 the air would be beneficial." 
 
 " Excellent Palermo or Taormina send
 
 Reveals Temptation 5 1 
 
 the girl there as soon as ever you can. She seems 
 unstrung, and may get worse; a change will 
 certainly do her good," replied the man whose 
 craft and cunning were unequalled. " I know," 
 he added reflectively, " that Enid dislikes me 
 diy, I can never make out." 
 
 " Instinct, I suppose, Weirmarsh," was the 
 old man's reply. " She suspects that you hold 
 me in your power, as you undoubtedly do." 
 
 " Now that is really a most silly idea of 
 yours, Sir Hugh. Do get rid of it. Such a 
 thought pains me to a great degree," declared 
 the crafty-eyed man. " For these past years I 
 have provided you with a good income, enabling 
 you to keep up your position in the world, in- 
 stead of well, perhaps shivering on the Em- 
 bankment at night and partaking of the hospi- 
 tality of the charitably disposed. Yet you up- 
 braid me as though I had treated you shabbily! " 
 He spoke with an irritating air of superiority, 
 for he knew that this man who occupied such a 
 high position, who was an intimate friend and 
 confidant of the Minister of War, and universal- 
 ly respected throughout the country, was but a 
 tool in his unscrupulous hands. 
 
 ' You ask me too much," exclaimed the grey- 
 moustached officer in a hard, low voice. 
 
 l< The request does not emanate from me,"
 
 $2 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 was the doctor's reply; "I am but the mouth- 
 piece." 
 
 " Yes, the mouthpiece but the eyes and ears 
 also, Weirmarsh," replied Sir Hugh. ' You 
 bought me, body and soul, for a wage of five 
 thousand pounds a year " 
 
 " The salary of one of His Majesty's Minis- 
 ters," interrupted the doctor. " It has been paid 
 you with regularity, together with certain extras. 
 When you have wished for a loan of five hun- 
 dred or so, I have never refused it." 
 
 " I quite admit that ; but you've always re- 
 ceived a quid pro quo" the general snapped. 
 " Look at the thousands upon thousands I put 
 through for you ! " 
 
 ' The whole transaction has from the begin^ 
 ning been a matter of business ; and, as far as I 
 am concerned, I have fulfilled my part of the 
 contract." 
 
 The man standing upon the hearthrug sighed. 
 :< I suppose," he said, " that I really have no right 
 to complain. I clutched at the straw you held 
 out to me, and saved myself at a cost greater 
 than the world can ever know. I hate myself 
 for it. If I had then known what I know now 
 concerning you and your friends, I would rather 
 have blown out my brains than have listened to
 
 Reveals Temptation S3 
 
 your accursed words of temptation. The whole 
 plot is damnable ! " 
 
 " My dear fellow, I am not Mephistopheles," 
 laughed the narrow-eyed doctor. 
 
 ' You are worse," declared the general boldly. 
 * You bought me body and soul, but by 
 Heaven!" he cried, "you have not bought my 
 family, sir! " 
 
 Weirmarsh moved uneasily in his chair. 
 
 " And so you refuse to do this service which 
 I requested of you, yesterday, eh? " he asked 
 very slowly. 
 
 " I do." 
 
 A silence fell between the two men, broken 
 only by the low ticking of the little Sheraton 
 clock upon the mantelshelf. 
 
 " Have you fully reflected upon what this" 
 refusal of yours may cost you, General? " asked 
 the doctor in a slow, hard voice, his eyes fixed 
 upon the other's countenance. 
 
 " It will cost me just as much as you decide 
 it shall," was the response of the unhappy man, 
 who found himself enmeshed by the crafty 
 practitioner. 
 
 ' You speak as though I were the principal, 
 whereas I am but the agent," Weirmarsh 
 protested. 
 
 " Principal or agent, my decision, Doctor, is
 
 54 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 irrevocable I refuse to serve your accursed ends 
 further." 
 
 " Really," laughed the other, still entirely 
 unruffled, " your attitude to-day is quite amusing. 
 You've got an attack of liver, and you should 
 allow me to prescribe for you." 
 
 The general made a quick gesture of im- 
 patience, but did not reply. 
 
 It was upon the tip of Weirmarsh's tongue 
 to refer to Walter Fetherston, but next instant 
 he had reflected. If Sir Hugh really intended 
 to abandon himself to remorse and make a fool 
 of himself, why should he stretch forth a hand 
 to save him? 
 
 That ugly revelations very ugly ones 
 might result was quite within the range of possi- 
 bility, therefore Weirmarsh, whose craft and cun- 
 ning were amazing, intended to cover his own re- 
 treat behind the back of the very man whom he 
 had denounced to Enid Orlebar. 
 
 He sat in silence, his finger-tips again joined, 
 gazing upon the man who had swallowed that 
 very alluring bait he had once placed before him. 
 
 He realised by Sir Hugh's manner that he 
 regretted his recent action and was now over- 
 come by remorse. Remorse meant exposure, and 
 exposure meant prosecution a great public
 
 Reveals Temptation 55 
 
 prosecution, which, at all hazards, must not be 
 allowed. 
 
 As he sat there he was actually calmly won- 
 dering whether this fine old officer with such a 
 brilliant record would die in silence by his own 
 hand and carry his secret to the grave, or whether 
 he would leave behind some awkward written 
 statement which would incriminate himself and 
 those for whom he acted. 
 
 Suddenly Sir Hugh turned and, looking the 
 doctor squarely in the face as though divining 
 his inmost thoughts, said in a hoarse voice tremu- 
 lous with emotion : " Ah, you need not trouble 
 yourself further, Weirmarsh. I have a big din- 
 ner-party to-night, but by midnight I shall have 
 paid the penalty which you have imposed upon 
 me I shall have ceased to live. I will die rather 
 then serve you further! " 
 
 ' Very well, my dear sir," replied the doctor, 
 rising from his chair abruptly. " Of course, 
 every man's life is his own property you can 
 take it if you think fit but I assure you that such 
 an event would not concern me in the least. I 
 have already taken the precaution to appe? with 
 clean hands should occasion require."
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 IN WHICH ENID OKLEBAE, IS PUZZLED 
 
 THAT night, around the general's dinner-table in 
 Hill Street, a dozen or so well-known men and' 
 women were assembled. 
 
 Sir Hugh Elcombe's dinners were always 
 smart gatherings. The table was set with 
 Georgian silver and decorated daintily with 
 flowers, while several of the women wore splendid 
 jewels. At the head sat Lady Elcombe, a quiet, 
 rather fragile, calm-faced woman in black, whose 
 countenance bore traces of long suffering, but 
 whose smile was very sweet. 
 
 Among the guests was Walter Fetherston, 
 whom the general had at last induced to visit 
 him, and he had taken in Enid, who looked su- 
 perb in a cream decollete gown, and who wore 
 round her throat a necklet of turquoise matrices, 
 admirably suited to her half -barbaric beauty. 
 
 Fetherston had only accepted the general's 
 invitation at her urgent desire, for she had writ- 
 ten to White's telling him that it was impera- 
 tive they should meet she wished to consult 
 
 66
 
 In Which Enid Orlebar is Puzzled 57 
 
 him; she begged of him to forget the interview 
 at Monifieth and return to her. 
 
 So, against his will, he had gone there, though 
 the house and all it contained was hateful to 
 him. With that terrible secret locked within his 
 heart that secret which gripped his very vitals 
 and froze his blood he looked upon the scene 
 about him with horror and disgust. Indeed, it 
 was only by dint of self-control that he could be 
 civil to his host. 
 
 His fellow-guests were of divers types: a 
 couple of peers and their womenkind, a popular 
 actor-manager, two diplomats, and several mili- 
 tary men of more or less note two of them, 
 like the host, occupying high positions at the 
 War Office. 
 
 Such gatherings were of frequent occurrence 
 at Hill Street. It was popularly supposed that 
 Sir Hugh, by marrying His Majesty's Minister's 
 widow, had married money, and was thus able 
 to sustain the position he did. Other military 
 men in his position found it difficult to make 
 both ends meet, and many envied old Hugh El- 
 combe and his wealthy wife. They were unaware 
 that Lady Orlebar, after the settlement of her 
 husband's estate, had found herself with prac- 
 tically nothing, and that her marriage to Sir 
 Hugh had been more to secure a home than any-
 
 58 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 thing else. Both had, alas! been equally de- 
 ceived. The general, believing her to be rich, had 
 been sadly disillusioned; while she, on her part, 
 was equally filled with alarm when he revealed to 
 her his penurious position. 
 
 The world, of course, knew nothing of this. 
 Sir Hugh, ever since his re-marriage, had given 
 good dinners and had been entertained in return, 
 therefore everybody believed that he derived his 
 unusually large income from his wife. 
 
 As he sat at table he laughed and chatted 
 merrily with his guests, for on such occasions he 
 was always good company. Different, indeed, 
 was his attitude from when, at noon, he had stood 
 with Weirmarsh in his own den and pronounced 
 his own fate. 
 
 The man who held him in that strange thral- 
 dom was seated at the table. He had been in- 
 vited three days ago, and had come there, per- 
 haps, to taunt him with his presence in those the 
 last few hours of his life. 
 
 Only once the two men exchanged glances, 
 for Weirmarsh was devoting all his attention to 
 young Lady Stockbridge. But when Sir Hugh 
 encountered the doctor's gaze he saw in his eyes 
 open defiance and triumph. 
 
 In ignorance of the keen interest which the 
 doctor across the table felt in him, Walter
 
 In Which Enid Orlebar is Puzzled 59 
 
 Fetherston sat chatting and laughing with Enid. 
 Once the doctor, to whom he had been introduced 
 only half an hour before, addressed a remark 
 to him to which he replied, at the same time re- 
 flecting within himself that Weirmarsh was quite 
 a pleasant acquaintance. 
 
 He was unaware of that mysterious visit of 
 inquiry to Monifieth, of that remarkable cipher 
 telegram afterwards dispatched to Brussels, or 
 even of the extraordinary influence that man in 
 the well-worn evening suit possessed over both his 
 host and the handsome girl beside him. 
 
 When the ladies had left the table the doctor 
 set himself out over the cigarettes to become 
 more friendly with the writer of fiction. Then 
 afterwards he rose, and encountering his host, 
 who had also risen and crossed the room, 
 whispered in a voice of command : ' You have 
 reconsidered your decision! You will commit 
 no foolish and cowardly act? I see it in your 
 face. I shall call to-morrow at noon, and we will 
 discuss the matter further." 
 
 The general did not reply for a few seconds. 
 But Weirmarsh had already realised that reflec- 
 tion had brought his victim to a calmer state of 
 mind. 
 
 " I will not listen to you," the old man 
 growled.
 
 60 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 " But I shall speak whether you listen or not. 
 Remember, I am not a man to be fooled by talk. 
 I shall be here at noon and lay before you a 
 scheme perhaps a little more practicable than the 
 last one." And with that he reached for some 
 matches, turned upon his heel, and rejoined the 
 man against whom he had warned Enid the 
 only man in the world whom he feared. 
 
 Before they rose Weirmarsh had ingratiated 
 himself with his enemy. So clever was he that 
 Fetherston, in ignorance as to whom his fellow- 
 guest really was, save that he was a member of 
 the medical profession, was actually congratulat- 
 ing himself that he had now met a man after his 
 own heart. 
 
 At last they repaired to the pretty old-rose- 
 and-gold drawing-room upstairs, an apartment 
 in which great taste was displayed in decoration, 
 and there several of the ladies sang or recited. 
 One of them, a vivacious young Frenchwoman, 
 was induced to give Barrois's romance, " J'ai vu 
 fleurir notre dernier lilas ! " 
 
 When she had concluded Enid, with whom 
 Walter was seated, rose and passed into the small 
 conservatory, which was prettily illuminated with 
 fairy lights. As soon as they were alone she 
 turned to him in eager distress, saying: " Walter, 
 do, I beg of you, beware of that man! "
 
 In Which Enid Orlebar is Puzzled 61 
 
 " Of what man? " he asked in quick surprise. 
 
 " Of Doctor Weirmarsh." 
 ' Why? I don't know him. I never met him 
 until to-night. Who is he? " 
 
 " My stepfather's friend, but my enemy 
 and yours," she cried quickly, placing her hand 
 upon her heart as though to quell its throbbing. 
 
 " Is he well known? " inquired the novelist. 
 
 " No only in Pimlico. He lives in Vaux- 
 hall Bridge Road, and his practice lies within 
 a radius of half a mile of Victoria Station." 
 
 " And why is he my enemy? " 
 
 " Oh, that I cannot tell." 
 
 ' Why is he your stepfather's friend? " asked 
 Fetherston. ' They certainly seem to be on very 
 good terms." 
 
 " Doctor Weirmarsh's cunning and ingenuity 
 are unequalled," she declared. " Over me, as 
 over Sir Hugh, he has cast a kind of spell 
 a 
 
 Her companion laughed. " My dear Enid," 
 he said, " spells are fictions of the past; nobody 
 believes in them nowadays. He may possess 
 some influence over you, but surely you are suffi- 
 ciently strong-minded to resist his power, what- 
 ever it may be? " 
 
 " No," she replied, " I am not. For that 
 reason I fear for myself and for Sir Hugh.
 
 62 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 That man compelled Sir Hugh to take me to 
 him for a consultation, and as soon as I was in 
 his presence I knew that his will was mine 
 that I was powerless." 
 
 " I don't understand you," said Fetherston, 
 much interested in this latest psychic problem. 
 
 " Neither do I understand myself," she an- 
 swered in bewilderment. ' To me this man's 
 power, fascination whatever you may term it 
 is a complete mystery." 
 
 " I will investigate it," said Fetherston 
 promptly. " What is his address? " 
 
 She told him, and he scribbled it upon his 
 shirt-cuff. Then, looking into her beautiful coun- 
 tenance, he asked : " Have you no idea of the 
 nature of this man's influence over Sir Hugh? " 
 
 " None whatever. It is plain, however, that 
 he is master over my stepfather's actions. My 
 mother has often remarked to me upon it," was 
 her response. " He comes here constantly, and 
 remains for hours closeted with Sir Hugh in his 
 study. So great is his influence that he orders 
 our servants to do his bidding." 
 
 " And he compelled Sir Hugh to take you 
 to his consulting room, eh? Under what pre- 
 text? " 
 
 " I was suffering from extreme nervousness, 
 and he prescribed for me with beneficial effect,"
 
 In Which Enid Orlebar is Puzzled 63 
 
 she said. " But ever since I have felt myself 
 beneath his influence in a manner which I am 
 utterly unable to describe. I do not believe in 
 hypnotic suggestion, or it might be put down to 
 that." 
 
 " But what is your theory? " 
 
 " I have none, except well, except that this 
 man, essentially a man of evil, possesses some 
 occult influence which other men do not possess." 
 
 ' Yours is not a weak nature, Enid," he de- 
 clared. * You are not the sort of girl to fall be- 
 neath the influence of another." 
 
 " I think not," she laughed in reply. " And 
 yet the truth is a hard and bitter one." 
 
 " Remain firm and determined to be mistress 
 of your own actions," he urged, " and in the 
 meantime I will cultivate the doctor's acquain- 
 tance and endeavour to investigate the cause of 
 this remarkable influence of his." 
 
 Why did Doctor Weirmarsh possess such 
 power over Sir Hugh? he wondered. Could it 
 be that this man was actually in possession of 
 the truth? Was he aware of that same terrible 
 and hideous secret of which he himself was aware 
 a secret which, if exposed, would convulse the 
 whole country, so shameful and scandalous 
 was itl 
 
 He saw how pale and agitated Enid was.
 
 64 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 She had in her frantic anxiety sought his aid. 
 Only a few days ago they had parted; yet now, 
 in the moment of her fear and apprehension, she 
 had recalled him to her side to seek his advice 
 and protection. 
 
 She had not told him of that mysterious 
 warning Weirmarsh had given her concerning 
 him, or of his accurate knowledge of their ac- 
 quaintanceship. She had purposely refrained 
 from telling him this lest her words should unduly 
 prejudice him. She had warned Walter that 
 the doctor was his enemy this, surely, was 
 sufficient! 
 
 ;< Try and discover, if you can, the reason of 
 the doctor's power over my father, and why he 
 is for ever directing his actions," urged the girl. 
 " For myself I care little ; it is for Sir Hugh's 
 sake that I am trying to break the bonds, if 
 possible." 
 
 * You have no suspicion of the reason? " he 
 repeated, looking seriously into her face. ' You 
 do not think that he holds some secret of your 
 stepfather's? Undue influence can frequently 
 be traced to such a source." 
 
 She shook her head in the negative, a blank 
 look in her great, dark eyes. 
 
 ' No," she replied, " it is all a mystery one 
 which I beg of you, Walter, to solve, and " she
 
 In Which Enid Orlebar is Puzzled 65 
 
 faltered in a strange voice " and to save me ! " 
 He pressed her hand and gave her his 
 promise. Then for a second she raised her full 
 red lips to his, and together they passed back into 
 the drawing-room, where their re-entry in com- 
 pany did not escape the sharp eyes of the lonely 
 doctor of Pimlico.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 BENEATH THE ELASTIC BAND 
 
 WALTER FETHERSTON strolled back that night to 
 the dingy chambers he rented in Holies Street, 
 off Oxford Street, as a pied-a-terre when in Lon- 
 don. He was full of apprehension, full of curi- 
 osity, as to who this Doctor Weirmarsh could be. 
 
 He entered his darkling, shabby old third- 
 floor room and threw himself into the arm-chair 
 before the fire to think. It was a room with- 
 out beauty, merely walls, repapered once every 
 twenty years, and furniture of the mid- Victorian 
 era. The mantelshelf in the bedroom still bore 
 stains from the medicine bottles which consoled 
 the final hours of the last tenant, a man about 
 whom a curious story was told. 
 
 It seems that he found a West End anchor- 
 age there, not when he had retired, but when he 
 was in the very prime of life. He never told 
 anyone that he was single; at the same time he 
 never told anyone he was married. He just came 
 and rented those three rooms, and there his man 
 brought him his tea at ten o'clock every morning 
 
 66
 
 Beneath the Elastic Band 67 
 
 for thirty years. Then he dressed himself and 
 Went round to the Devonshire, in St. James's 
 Street, and there remained till closing time, at 
 two o'clock, every morning for thirty years. 
 When his club closed in the dog-days for re- 
 pairs he went to the club which received him. 
 He never went out of town. He never slept a 
 night away. He never had a visitor. He never 
 received a letter, and, so far as his man was 
 aware, never wrote one. 
 
 One morning he did not go through his usual 
 programme. The doctor was called, but during 
 the next fortnight he died. 
 
 Within twelve hours, however, his widow and 
 a family of grown-up children arrived, pleasant, 
 cheerful, inquisitive people, who took away with 
 them everything portable, greatly to the chagrin 
 of the devoted old manservant who had been the 
 tenant's single home-tie for thirty years. 
 
 It was these selfsame, dull, monotonous cham- 
 bers which Walter occupied. The old man- 
 servant was the selfsame man who had so de- 
 votedly served the previous tenant. They suited 
 Walter's purpose, for he was seldom in London, 
 so old Hayden had the place to himself for many 
 months every year. Of all the inhabitants of 
 London chambers those are the most lonely who 
 never wander away from London. But Walter
 
 68 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 was ever wandering, therefore he never noticed 
 the shabbiness of the carpet, the dinginess of 
 the furniture, or the dispiriting gloom of every- 
 thing. 
 
 Like the previous tenant, Walter had no 
 visitors and was mostly out all day. At evening 
 he would write at the dusty old bureau in which 
 the late tenant had kept locked his family treas- 
 ures, or sit in the deep, old horsehair-covered 
 chair with his feet upon the fender, as he did that 
 night after returning from Hill Street. 
 
 The only innovation in those grimy rooms 
 was a good-sized fireproof safe which stood in the 
 corner hidden by a side-table, and from this Wal- 
 ter had taken a bundle of papers and carried 
 them with him to his chair. 
 
 One by one he carefully went through them, 
 until at last he found the document of which he 
 was in search. 
 
 ' Yes," he exclaimecl to himself after he had 
 scanned it, " so I was not mistaken after all! 
 The mystery is deeper than I thought. By Jove ! 
 that fellow, Joseph Blot, alias Weirmarsh, alias 
 Detmold, Ponting and half a dozen other names, 
 no doubt, is playing a deep game a dangerous 
 customer evidently! " 
 
 Then, again returning to the safe, he took 
 out a large packet of miscellaneous photographs
 
 Beneath the Elastic Band 69 
 
 of various persons secured by an elastic band. 
 These he went rapidly through until he held one 
 in his hand, an unmounted carte-de-visite, which 
 he examined closely beneath the green-shaded 
 reading-lamp. 
 
 It was a portrait of Doctor Weirmarsh, evi- 
 dently taken a few years before, as he then wore 
 a short pointed beard, whereas he was now shaven 
 except for a moustache. 
 
 " No mistake about those features," he re- 
 marked to himself with evident satisfaction as, 
 turning the photographic print, he took note of 
 certain cabalistic numbers written in the corner, 
 scribbling them in pencil upon his blotting-pad. 
 
 " I thought I recollected those curious eyes 
 and that unusual breadth of forehead," he went 
 on, speaking to himself, and again examining the 
 pictured face through his gold pince-nez. " It's 
 a long time since I looked at this photograph- 
 fully five years. What would the amiable doc- 
 tor think if he knew that I held the key which 
 will unlock his past? " 
 
 He laughed lightly to himself, and, select- 
 ing a cigarette from the silver box, lit it. 
 
 Then he sat back in his big arm-chair, his 
 eyes fixed upon the fire, contemplating what he 
 realised to be a most exciting and complicated 
 problem.
 
 70 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 " This means that I must soon be upon the 
 move again," he murmured to himself. " Enid 
 has sought my assistance she has asked me to 
 save her, and I will exert my utmost endeavour 
 to do so. But I see it will be difficult, very diffi- 
 cult. She is, no doubt, utterly unaware of the 
 real identity of this brisk, hard-working doctor. 
 And perhaps, after all," he added slowly, " it is 
 best so best that she remain in ignorance of this 
 hideous, ghastly truth ! " 
 
 At that same moment, while Walter Fether- 
 ston was preoccupied by these curious apprehen- 
 sions, the original of that old carte-de-visite was 
 seated in the lounge of the Savoy Hotel, smok- 
 ing a cigar with a tall, broad-shouldered, red- 
 bearded man who was evidently a foreigner. 
 
 He had left Hill Street five minutes after 
 Fetherston, and driven down to the Savoy, where 
 he had a rendezvous for supper with his friend. 
 That he was an habitue there was patent from 
 the fact that upon entering the restaurant, Al- 
 phonse, the mcdtre d'hotel, with his plan of the 
 tables pinned upon the board, greeted him with, 
 " Ah! good evening, Docteur. Table vingt-six 5 
 Docteur Weirmarsh." 
 
 The scene was the same as it is every evening 
 at the Savoy; the music, the smart dresses of the 
 women, the flowers, the shaded lights, the chatter
 
 I 
 
 Beneath the Elastic Band 71 
 
 and the irresponsible laughter of the London 
 world amusing itself after the stress of war. 
 
 You know it why, therefore, should I de- 
 scribe it? Providing you possess an evening suit 
 or a low-necked dress, you can always rub 
 shoulders with the monde and the demi-monde of 
 London at a cost of a few shillings a head. 
 
 The two men had supped and were chatting 
 in French over their coffee and " triplesec." 
 Gustav, Weirmarsh called his friend, and from 
 his remarks it was apparent that he was a stran- 
 ger to London. He was dressed with elegance. 
 Upon the corner of his white lawn handkerchief 
 a count's coronet was embroidered, and upon his 
 cigar-case also was a coronet and a cipher. In 
 his dress-shirt he wore a fine diamond, while upon 
 the little finger of his left hand glittered a similar 
 stone of great lustre. 
 
 The lights were half extinguished, and a 
 porter's voice cried, " Time's up, ladies and gen- 
 tlemen ! " Those who were not habitues rose 
 and commenced to file out, but the men and 
 women who came to the restaurant each night 
 sat undisturbed till the lights went up again 
 and another ten minutes elapsed before the final 
 request to leave was made. 
 
 The pair, seated away in a corner, had been 
 chatting in an undertone when they were com-
 
 72 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 pelled to rise. Thereupon the doctor insisted 
 that his friend, whose name was Gustav Heureux, 
 should accompany him home. So twenty minutes 
 later they alighted from a taxi-cab in the Vaux- 
 hall Bridge Road, and entered the shabby lit- 
 tle room wherein Weirmarsh schemed and 
 plotted. 
 
 The doctor produced from a cupboard some 
 cognac and soda and a couple of glasses, and 
 when they had lit cigars they sat down to resume 
 their chat. 
 
 Alone there, the doctor spoke in English. 
 
 * You see," he explained, " it is a matter of 
 the greatest importance if we make this coup 
 we can easily make a hundred thousand pounds 
 within a fortnight. The general at first refused 
 and became a trifle well, just a trifle resentful, 
 even vindictive ; but by showing a bold front I've 
 brought him round. To-morrow I shall clinch 
 the matter. That is my intention." 
 
 " It will be a brilliant snap, if you can actually 
 accomplish it," was the red-bearded man's en- 
 thusiastic reply. He now spoke in English, but 
 with a strong American accent. " I made an 
 attempt two years ago, but failed, and narrowly 
 escaped imprisonment." 
 
 " A dozen attempts have already been made, 
 but all in vain," replied the doctor, drawing hard
 
 Beneath the Elastic Band 73 
 
 at his cigar. ' Therefore, I'm all the more keen 
 to secure success." 
 
 ' You certainly have been very successful 
 over here, Doctor," observed the foreigner, whose 
 English had been acquired in America. ' We 
 have heard of you in New York, where you are 
 upheld to us as a model. Jensen once told me 
 that your methods were so ingenious as to be 
 unassailable." 
 
 " Merely because I am well supplied with 
 funds," answered the other with modesty. 
 " Here, in England, as elsewhere, any man or 
 woman can be bought if you pay their price. 
 There is only one section of the wonderful British 
 public who cannot be purchased the men and 
 women who are in love with each other. When- 
 ever I come up against Cupid, experience has 
 taught me to retire deferentially, and wait until 
 the love- fever has abated. It often turns to jeal- 
 ousy or hatred, and then the victims fall as 
 easily as off a log. A jealous woman will betray 
 any secret, even though it may hurry her lover 
 to his grave. To me, my dear Gustav, this 
 fevered world of London is all very amusing." 
 
 " And your profession as doctor must serve 
 as a most excellent mask. Who would suspect 
 you a lonely bachelor in such quarters as 
 these? " exclaimed his visitor.
 
 74 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 " No one does suspect me," laughed the doctor 
 with assurance. " Safety lies in pursuing my in- 
 creasing practice, and devoting all my spare time 
 to well, to my real profession." He flicked the 
 ash off his cigar as he spoke. 
 
 " Your friend, Elcombe, will have to be very 
 careful. The peril is considerable in that 
 quarter." 
 
 " I know that full well. But if he failed it 
 would be he who would suffer not I. As usual, 
 I do not appear in the affair at all." 
 
 " That is just where you are so intensely 
 clever and ingenious," declared Heureux. ' In 
 New York they speak of you as a perfect marvel 
 of foresight and clever evasion." 
 
 " It is simply a matter of exercising one's 
 wits," Weirmarsh laughed lightly. " I always 
 complete my plans with great care before em- 
 barking upon them, and I make provision for 
 every contretemps possible. It is the only way, 
 if one desires success." 
 
 " And you have had success," remarked his 
 companion. " Marked success in everything you 
 have attempted. In New York we have not been 
 nearly so fortunate. Those three articles in the 
 New York Sim put the public on their guard, so 
 that we dare not attempt any really bold move 
 for fear of detection."
 
 Beneath the Elastic Band 75 
 
 ' You have worked a little too openly, I 
 think," was Weirmarsh's reply. " But now that 
 you have been sent to assist me, you will prob- 
 ably see that my methods differ somewhat from 
 those of John Willoughby. Remember, he has 
 just the same amount of money placed at his dis- 
 posal as I have." 
 
 " And he is not nearly so successful," Heu- 
 reux replied. " Perhaps it is because Americans 
 are not so easily befooled as the English." 
 
 " And yet America is, par excellence, the 
 country of bluff, of quackery in patent medicines, 
 and of the booming of unworthy persons," the 
 doctor laughed. 
 
 "It is fortunate, Doctor, that the public are 
 in ignorance of the real nature of our work, isn't 
 it, eh? Otherwise, you and I might experience 
 rather rough handling if this house were 
 mobbed." 
 
 Weirmarsh smiled grimly. " My dear Gus- 
 tav," he laughed, " the British public, though of 
 late they've browsed upon the hysterics of the 
 popular Press, are already asleep again. It is 
 not for us to arouse them. We profit by their 
 heavy slumber, and this will be a rude awakening 
 a shock, depend upon it." 
 
 " We were speaking of Sir Hugh Elcombe,"
 
 76 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 remarked the other. " He has been of use to 
 us, eh?" 
 
 " Of considerable use, but his usefulness is 
 all but ended," replied the doctor. " He will go 
 to France before long, if he does not act as I 
 direct." 
 
 " Into a veritable hornet's nest! " exclaimed 
 the red-bearded man. He recognised a strange 
 expression upon the doctor's face, and added, 
 " Ah, I see. This move is intentional, eh? He 
 has served our purpose, and you now deem it 
 wise that er disaster should befall him across 
 the Channel, eh?" 
 
 The doctor smiled in the affirmative. 
 
 " And the girl you spoke of, Enid Orlebar? " 
 
 " The girl will share the same fate as her step- 
 father," was Weirmarsh's hard response. ' We 
 cannot risk betrayal." 
 
 " Then she knows something? " 
 
 " She may or she may not. In any case, how- 
 ever, she constitutes a danger, a grave danger, 
 tkat must, at all costs, be removed." And look- 
 ing into the other's face, he added, " You under- 
 stand me?" 
 
 " Perfectly." 
 
 Just before two o'clock Gustav Heureux left 
 the frowsy house in Vauxhall Bridge Road and
 
 Beneath the Elastic Band 77 
 
 walked through the silent street into Victoria 
 Street. 
 
 He was unaware, however, that on the oppo- 
 site side of the road an ill-dressed man had for a 
 full hour been lurking in a doorway, or that when 
 he came down the doctor's steps, the mysterious 
 midnight watcher strolled noiselessly after him.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 CONCERNING THE VELVET HAND 
 
 ON the rising ground half-way between Wim- 
 borne and Poole, in Dorsetshire, up a narrow by- 
 road which leads to the beautiful woods, lies the 
 tiny hamlet of Idsworth, a secluded little place 
 of about forty inhabitants, extremely rural and 
 extremely picturesque. 
 
 Standing alone half-way up the hill, and sur- 
 rounded by trees, was an old-world thatched cot- 
 tage, half-timbered, with high, red-brick chim- 
 neys, quaint gables and tiny dormer windows 
 a delightful old Elizabethan house with a com- 
 fortable, homely look. Behind it a well-kept 
 flower garden, with a tree-fringed meadow be- 
 yond, while the well-rolled gravelled walks, the 
 rustic fencing, and the pretty curtains at the case- 
 ments betrayed the fact that the rustic home- 
 stead was not the residence of a villager. 
 
 As a matter of fact it belonged to a Mr. John 
 Maltwood, a bachelor, whom Idsworth believed 
 to be in business in London, and who came there 
 at intervals for fresh air and rest. His visits 
 
 78
 
 Concerning the Velvet Hand 79 
 
 were not very frequent. Sometimes he would be 
 absent for many months, and at others he would 
 remain there for weeks at a time, with a cheery 
 word always for the labourers on their way home 
 from work, and always with his hand in his pocket 
 in the cause of charity. 
 
 John Maltwood, the quiet, youngish-looking 
 man in the gold pince-nez, was popular every- 
 where over the country-side. He did not court 
 the society of the local parsons and their wives, 
 nor did he return any of the calls made upon 
 him. His excuse was that he was at Idsworth 
 for rest, and not for social duties. This very in- 
 dependence of his endeared him to the villagers, 
 who always spoke of him as "one of the right 
 sort." 
 
 At noon on the day following the dinner at 
 Hill Street, Walter Fetherston known at Ids- 
 worth as Mr. Maltwood alighted from the sta- 
 tion fly, and was met at the cottage gate by the 
 smiling, pleasant-faced woman in a clean apron 
 who acted as caretaker. 
 
 He divested himself of his overcoat in the 
 tiny entrance-hall, passed into a small room, with 
 the great open hearth, where in days long ago the 
 bacon was smoked, and along a passage into the 
 long, old-world dining-room, with its low ceiling 
 with great dark beams, its solemn-ticking, brass-
 
 8o The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 faced grandfather clock, and its profusion of old 
 blue china. 
 
 There he gave some orders to Mrs. Deacon, 
 obtained a cigarette, and passed back along the 
 passage to a small, cosy, panelled room at the 
 end of the house the room wherein he wrote 
 those mystery stories which held the world en- 
 thralled. 
 
 It was a pretty, restful place, with a moss- 
 green carpet, green-covered chairs, several cases 
 filled to overflowing with books, and a great 
 writing-table set in the window. On the mantel- 
 shelf were many autographed portraits of Con- 
 tinental celebrities, while on the walls were one 
 or two little gems of antique art which he had 
 picked up on his erratic wanderings. Over the 
 writing-table was a barometer and a storm-glass, 
 while to the left a cosy corner extended round 
 to the fireplace. 
 
 He lit his cigarette, then walking across to a 
 small square oaken door let into the wall beside 
 the fireplace, he opened it with a key. This had 
 been an oven before the transformation of three 
 cottages into a week-end residence, and on open- 
 ing it there was displayed the dark-green door of 
 a safe. This he quickly opened with another key, 
 and after slight search took out a small ledger 
 covered with dark-red leather.
 
 Concerning the Velvet Hand 81 
 
 Then glancing at some numerals upon a piece 
 of paper he took from his vest pocket, he turned 
 them up in the index, and with another volume 
 open upon his blotting-pad, he settled himself to 
 read the record written there in a small, round 
 hand. The numbers were those upon the back of 
 the old carte-de-visite which had interested him so 
 keenly, and the statement he was reading was, 
 from the expression upon his countenance, an 
 amazing one. 
 
 From time to time he scribbled memoranda 
 upon the scrap of paper, now and then pausing 
 as though to recall the past. Then, when he had 
 finished, he laughed softly to himself, and, closing 
 the book, replaced it in the safe and shut the 
 oaken door. By the inspection of that secret 
 entry he had learnt much regarding that man who 
 posed as a doctor in Pimlico. 
 
 He sat back in his writing-chair and puffed 
 thoughtfully at his cigarette. Then he turned his 
 attention to a pile of letters addressed to him as 
 " Mr. Maltwood," and made some scribbled re- 
 plies until Mrs. Deacon entered to announce that 
 his luncheon was ready. 
 
 When he went back to the quaint, old-fash- 
 ioned dining-room and seated himself, he said: 
 " I'm going back by the five-eighteen, and I dare 
 say I shan't return for quite a month or perhaps
 
 82 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 six weeks. Here's a cheque for ten pounds to 
 pay these little bills." And he commenced his 
 solitary meal. 
 
 " You haven't been here much this summer, 
 sir," remarked the good woman. " In Idsworth 
 they think you've quite deserted us Mr. Barnes 
 was only saying so last week. They're all so glad 
 to see you down here, sir." 
 
 " That's very good of them, Mrs. Deacon," 
 he laughed. " I, too, only wish I could spend 
 more time here. I love the country, and I'm 
 never so happy as when wandering in Idsworth 
 woods." 
 
 And then he asked her to tell him the village 
 gossip while she waited at his table. 
 
 After luncheon he put on a rough suit and, 
 taking his stout holly stick, went for a ramble 
 through the great woods he loved so well, where 
 the trees were tinted by autumn and the pheas- 
 ants were strong upon the wing. 
 
 He found Findlay, one of the keepers, and 
 walked with him for an hour as far as the Roman 
 camp, where alone he sat down upon a felled 
 tree and, with his gaze fixed across the distant 
 hills towards the sea, pondered deeply. He loved 
 his modest country cottage, and he loved those 
 quiet, homely Dorsetshire folk around him. Yet 
 such a wanderer was he that only a few months
 
 Concerning the Velvet Hand 83 
 
 each year the months he wrote those wonderful 
 romances of his could he spend in that old- 
 fashioned cottage which he had rendered the very 
 acme of cosiness and comfort. 
 
 At half-past four the rickety station fly called 
 for him, and later he left by the express which 
 took him to Waterloo and his club in time for 
 dinner. 
 
 And so once again he changed his identity 
 from John Maltwood, busy man of business, to 
 Walter Fetherston, novelist and traveller. 
 
 The seriousness of what was in progress was 
 now plain to him. He had long been filled with 
 strong suspicions, and these suspicions had been 
 confirmed both by Enid's statements and his own 
 observations; therefore he was already alert and 
 watchful. 
 
 At ten o'clock he went to his gloomy cham- 
 bers for an hour, and then strolled forth to the 
 Vauxhall Bridge Road, and remained vigilant 
 outside the doctor's house until nearly two. 
 
 He noted those who came and went two men 
 who called before midnight, and were evidently 
 foreigners. They came separately, remained 
 about half an hour, and then Weirmarsh himself 
 let them out, shaking hands with them effusively. 
 
 Suddenly a taxicab drove up, and from it 
 Sir Hugh, in black overcoat and opera hat,
 
 84 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 stepped out and was at once admitted, the taxi 
 driving off. Walter, as he paced up and down 
 the pavement outside, would have given much 
 to know what was transpiring within. 
 
 Had he been able to glance inside that shabby 
 little back room he would have witnessed a 
 strange scene Sir Hugh, the gallant old soldier, 
 crushed and humiliated by the man who practised 
 medicine, and who called himself Weirmarsh. 
 
 " I had only just come in from the theatre 
 when you telephoned me," Sir Hugh said sharply 
 on entering. " I am sorry I could make no ap- 
 pointment to-day, but I was at the War Office 
 all the morning, lunched at the Carlton, and was 
 afterwards quite full up." 
 
 " There was no immediate hurry, Sir Hugh," 
 responded the doctor with a pleasant smile. " I 
 quite understand that your many social engage- 
 ments prevented you from seeing me. I should 
 have been round at noon, only I was called out 
 to an urgent case. Therefore no apology is 
 needed by either of us." Then, after a pause, 
 he looked sharply at the man seated before him 
 and asked : " I presume you have reconsidered 
 your decision, General, and will carry out my 
 request? " 
 
 " No, I have not decided to do that," was the 
 old fellow's firm answer. " It's too dangerous an
 
 Concerning the Velvet Hand 85 
 
 exploit far too dangerous. Besides, it means 
 ruin." 
 
 " My dear sir," remarked the doctor, " you 
 are viewing the matter in quite a wrong light. 
 There will be no suspicion providing you exer- 
 cise due caution." 
 
 " And what would be the use of that, pray, 
 when my secret will not be mine alone? It is 
 already known to half a dozen other persons 
 your friends any of whom might give me away." 
 
 " It will not be known until afterwards 
 when you are safe. Therefore, there will be abso- 
 lutely no risk," the doctor assured him. 
 
 The other, however, was no fool, and was still 
 unconvinced. He knew well that to carry out 
 the request made by Weirmarsh involved con- 
 siderable risk. 
 
 The doctor spoke quietly, but very firmly. 
 In his demands he was always inexorable. He 
 had already hinted at the disaster which might 
 fall upon Sir Hugh if he refused to obey. Weir- 
 marsh was, the general knew from bitter experi- 
 ence, not a man to be trifled with. 
 
 Completely and irrevocably he was in this 
 man's hands. During the past twenty-four hours 
 the grave old fellow, who had faced death a hun- 
 dred times, had passed through a crisis of agony 
 and despair. He hated himself, and would even
 
 86 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 have welcomed death, would have courted it at 
 his own hands, had not these jeers of the doctor's 
 rung in his ears. And, after all, he had decided 
 that suicide was only a coward's death. The man 
 who takes his own life to avoid exposure is always 
 despised by his friends. 
 
 So he had lived, and had come down there in 
 response to the doctor's request over the tele- 
 phone, resolved to face the music, if for the last 
 time. 
 
 He sat in the shabby old arm-chair and firmly 
 refused to carry out the doctor's suggestion. But 
 Weirmarsh, with his innate cunning, presented to. 
 him a picture of exposure and degradation which 
 held him horrified. 
 
 " I should have thought, Sir Hugh, that in 
 face of what must inevitably result you would 
 not risk exposure," he said. " Of course, it lies 
 with you entirely," he added with an unconcerned 
 air. 
 
 " I'm thinking of my family," the old officer 
 said slowly. 
 
 " Of the disgrace if the truth were known, 
 eh?" 
 
 "No; of the suspicion, nay, ruin and im- 
 prisonment, that would fall upon another per- 
 son," replied Sir Hugh. 
 
 " No suspicion can be aroused if you are
 
 Concerning the Velvet Hand 87 
 
 ful, I repeat," exclaimed Weirmarsh impatiently. 
 " Not a breath of suspicion has ever fallen upon 
 you up to the present, has it? No, because you 
 have exercised foresight and have followed to 
 the letter the plans I made. I ask you, when you 
 have followed my advice have you ever gone 
 wrong have you ever taken one false step ? " 
 
 " Never since the first," replied the old 
 soldier in a hard, bitter tone. 
 
 * Then I urge you to continue to follow the 
 advice I give you, namely, to agree to the terms." 
 
 " And who will be aware of the matter? " 
 
 " Only myself," was Weirmarsh's reply. 
 " And I think that you may trust a secret with 
 me?" 
 
 The old man made no reply, and the crafty 
 doctor wondered whether by silence he very re- 
 luctantly gave his consent.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 PAUL LE PONTOIS 
 
 THERE is in the far north-west of France a broad, 
 white highway which runs from Chalons, crosses 
 the green Meuse valley, mounts the steep, high, 
 tree-fringed lands of the Cotes Lorraines, and 
 goes almost straight as an arrow across what 
 was, before the war, the German frontier at 
 Mars-la-Tour into quaint old Metz, that town 
 with ancient streets, musical chimes, and sad 
 monument to Frenchmen who fell in the disas- 
 trous never-to-be-forgotten war of '70. 
 
 This road has ever been one of the most 
 strongly guarded highways in the world, for, 
 between the Moselle, at Metz, and the Meuse, the 
 country is a flat plain smiling under cultivation, 
 with vines and cornfields everywhere, and com- 
 fortable little homesteads of the peasantry. This 
 was once the great battlefield whereon Gravelotte 
 was fought long ago, and where the Prussians 
 swept back the French like chaff before the wind, 
 and where France, later on, defeated the Crown 
 Prince's army. The peasants, in ploughing,
 
 Paul Le Pontois 89 
 
 daily turn up a rusty bayonet, a rotting gun- 
 stock, a skull, a thigh-bone, or some other hideous 
 relic of those black days; while the old men in 
 their blouses sit of nights smoking and telling 
 thrilling stories of the ferocity of that helmeted 
 enemy from yonder across the winding Moselle. 
 In recent days it has been again devastated by 
 the great world war, as its gaunt ruins mutely 
 tell. 
 
 That road, with its long line of poplars, after 
 crossing the ante-war French border, runs 
 straight for twenty kilometres towards the ab- 
 rupt range of high hills which form the natural 
 frontier of France, and then, at Haudiomont, en- 
 ters a narrow pass, over twelve kilometres long, 
 before it reaches the broad valley of the Meuse. 
 This pass was, before 1914, one of the four prin- 
 cipal gateways into France from Germany, The 
 others are all within a short distance, fifteen kilo- 
 metres or so at Commercy, which is an impor- 
 tant sous-prefecture, at Apremont, and at Eix. 
 All have ever been strongly guarded, but that at 
 Haudiomont was most impregnable of them all. 
 
 Before 1914 great forts in which were 
 mounted the most modern and the most destruc- 
 tive artillery ever devised by man, commanded 
 the whole country far beyond the Moselle into 
 Germany. Every hill-top bristled with them,
 
 90 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 smaller batteries were in every coign of vantage, 
 while those narrow mountain passes could also be 
 closed at any moment by being blown up when 
 the signal was given against the Hun invaders. 
 
 On the German side were many fortresses, but 
 none was so strong as these, for the efforts of the 
 French Ministry of War had, ever since the fall 
 of Napoleon III., been directed towards render- 
 ing the Cotes Lorraines impassable. 
 
 As one stands upon the road outside the tiny 
 hamlet of Harville a quaint but half -destroyed 
 little place consisting of one long street of ruined 
 whitewashed houses and looks towards the hills 
 eastward, low concrete walls can be seen, half 
 hidden, but speaking mutely of the withering 
 storm of shell that had, in 1914, burst from them 
 and swept the land. 
 
 Much can be seen of that chain of damaged 
 fortresses, and the details of most of them are now 
 known. Of those great ugly fortifications at 
 Moulainville the Belrupt Fort, which overlooks 
 the Meuse; the Daumaumont, commanding the 
 road from Conflans to Azannes; the Paroches 5 
 which stands directly over the highway from the 
 Moselle at Moussin we have heard valiant 
 stories, how the brave French defended them 
 against the armies of the Crown Prince. 
 
 It was not upon these, however, that the
 
 Paul Le Pontois 9 1 
 
 French Army relied when, in August, 1914, the 
 clash of war resounded along that pleasant fer- 
 tile valley, where the sun seems ever to shine and 
 the crops never fail. Hidden away from the 
 sight of passers-by upon the roads, protected 
 from sight by lines of sentries night and day, and 
 unapproachable, save by those immediately con- 
 nected with them, were the secret defences, huge 
 forts with long-range ordnance, which rose, fired, 
 and disappeared again, offering no mark for the 
 enemy. Constructed in strictest secrecy, there 
 were a dozen of such fortresses, the true details 
 of which the Huns vainly endeavoured to learn 
 while they were war-plotting. Many a spy of the 
 Kaiser had tried to pry there and had been ar- 
 rested and sentenced to a long term of imprison- 
 ment. 
 
 Those defences, placed at intervals along the 
 chain of hills right from Apremont away to 
 Bezonvaux, had been the greatest secret which 
 France possessed. 
 
 Within three kilometres of the mouth of the 
 pass at Haudiomont, at a short distance from the 
 road and at the edge of a wood, stood the ancient 
 Chateau de Lerouville, a small picturesque place 
 of the days of Louis XIV., with pretty lawns 
 and old-world gardens a chateau only in the 
 sense of being a country house and the residence
 
 92 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 of Paul Le Pontois, once a captain in the French 
 Army, but now retired. 
 
 Shut off from the road by a high old wall, 
 with great iron gates, it was approached by a 
 wide carriage-drive through a well-kept flower- 
 garden to a long terrasse which ran the whole 
 length of the house, and whereon, in summer, it 
 was the habit of the family to take their meals. 
 
 Upon this veranda, one morning about ten 
 days after the dinner party at Hill Street, Sir 
 Hugh, in a suit of light grey tweed, was stand- 
 ing chatting with his son-in-law, a tall, brown- 
 bearded, soldierly-looking man. 
 
 The autumn sun shone brightly over the rich 
 vinelands, beyond which stretched what was once 
 the German Empire. 
 
 Madame Le Pontois, a slim, dark-eyed, good- 
 looking woman of thirty, was still at table in the 
 salle-a-manger, finishing her breakfast in the 
 English style with little Ninette, a pretty blue- 
 eyed child of nine, whose hair was tied on the 
 top with wide white ribbon, and who spoke Eng- 
 lish quite well. 
 
 Her husband and her father had gone out 
 upon the terrasse to have their cigarettes prior to 
 their walk up the steep hillside to the fortress. 
 
 Life in that rural district possessed few 
 amusements outside the military circle, though
 
 Paul Le Pontois 93 
 
 Paul Le Pontois was a civilian and lived upon 
 the product of the wine-lands of his estate. 
 There were tennis parties, " fif o'clocks," croquet 
 and bridge-playing in the various military houses 
 around, but beyond that nothing. They were 
 too far from a big town ever to go there for recre- 
 ation. JVletz they seldom went to, and with Paris 
 far off, Madame Le Pontois was quite content, 
 just as she had been when Paul had been sta- 
 tioned in stifling Constantine, away in the in- 
 terior of Algeria. 
 
 But she never complained. Devoted to her 
 husband and to her laughing, bright-eyed child, 
 she loved the open-air life of the country, and 
 with such a commodious and picturesque house, 
 one of the best in the district, she thoroughly 
 enjoyed every hour of her life. Paul possessed 
 a private income of fifty thousand francs, or 
 nearly two thousand pounds a year, therefore 
 he was better off than the average run of post- 
 war men. 
 
 He was a handsome, distinguished-looking 
 man. As he lolled against the railing of the 
 terrasse, gay with ivy-leaf geraniums, lazily 
 smoking his cigarette and laughing lightly with 
 his father-in-law, he presented a typical picture 
 of the debonair Frenchman of the boulevards- 
 elegance combined with soldierly smartness.
 
 94 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 He had seen service in Tonquin, in Algeria, 
 on the French Congo and in the Argonne, and 
 now his old company garrisoned Haudiomont, 
 one of those forts of enormous strength, which 
 commanded the gate of France, and had never 
 been taken by the Crown Prince's army. 
 
 " No," he was laughing, speaking in good 
 English, " you in England, my dear beaupere, 
 do not yet realise the dangers of the future. 
 Happily for you, perhaps, because you have the 
 barrier of the sea. Your writers used to speak 
 of your ' tight little island.' But I do not see 
 much of that in London journals now. Airships 
 and aeroplanes have altered all that." 
 
 "But you in France are always on the 
 alert?" 
 
 " Certainly. We have our new guns terrible 
 weapons they are at St. Mihiel and at Mouilly, 
 and also in other forts in what was once German 
 territory," was Paul's reply. " The Huns who, 
 after peace, are preparing for another war, have 
 a Krupp gun for the same purpose, but at its 
 trial a few weeks ago at Pferzheim it was an utter 
 failure. A certain lieutenant was present at 
 the trial, disguised as a German peasant. He 
 saw it all, returned here, and made an exhaustive 
 report to Paris." 
 
 ' You do not believe in this peace, and in the
 
 Paul Le Pontois 95 
 
 sincerity of the enemy, eh? " asked Sir Hugh, 
 with his hands thrust deep into his trousers 
 pockets. 
 
 " Certainly not," was Paul's prompt reply. 
 " I am no longer in the army, but it seems to me 
 that to repair the damage done by the Kaiser's 
 freak performances in the international arena, 
 quite a number of national committees must be 
 constituted under the auspices of the German 
 Government. There are the Anglo- German, the 
 Austro-German, the American- German and the 
 Canadian-German committees, all to be formed 
 in their respective countries for the promotion of 
 friendship and better relations. But I tell you, 
 Sir Hugh, that we in France know well that the 
 imposing names at the head of these committees 
 are but too often on the secret pay-rolls of the 
 Wilhelmstrasse, and the honesty and sincerity of 
 the finely-worded manifestations of Hun friend- 
 ship and goodwill appearing above their signa- 
 tures are generally nothing but mere blinds in- 
 tended to hoodwink statesmen and public opinion. 
 Germany has, just as she had before the war, 
 her paid friends everywhere," he added, looking 
 the general full in the face. " In all classes of 
 society are to be found the secret agents of the 
 Fatherland men who are base traitors to their 
 own monarch and to their own land."
 
 96 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 " Let us go in. They are waiting for us. We 
 are not interested in espionage, either of us, are 
 we?" 
 
 " No," laughed Paul. " When I was in the 
 army we heard a lot of this, but all that is of the 
 past thanks to Heaven. There are other crimes 
 in the world just as bad, alas! as that of treachery 
 to one's country."
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE LITTLE OLD FRENCHWOMAN 
 
 ALTHOUGH Sir Hugh had on frequent occasions 
 been the guest of his son-in-law at the pretty 
 Chateau de Lerouville, he had never expressed a 
 wish, until the previous evening, to enter the 
 Fortress of Haudiomont. 
 
 As a military man he knew well how zealously 
 the secrets of all fortresses are guarded. 
 
 When, on the previous evening, Le Pontois 
 had declared that it would be an easy matter for 
 him to be granted a view of that great stronghold 
 hidden away among the hill-tops, he had re- 
 marked : " Of course, my dear Paul, I would not 
 for a moment dream of putting you into any awk- 
 ward position. Remember, I am an alien here, 
 and a soldier also! I haven't any desire to see 
 the place." 
 
 " Oh, there is no question of that so far as you 
 are concerned, Sir Hugh," Paul had declared 
 with a light laugh. * The Commandant, who, 
 of course, knows you, asked me a month ago to 
 bring you up next time you visited us. He 
 wished to make your acquaintance. In view of 
 
 97
 
 98 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 the recent war our people are nowadays no longer 
 afraid of England, you know! " 
 
 So the visit had been arranged, and Sir Hugh 
 was to take his dejeuner up at the fort. 
 
 That day Blanche, with Enid, who had ac- 
 companied her stepfather, drove the runabout 
 car up the valley to the little station at Dieue- 
 sur-Meuse, and took train thence to Comraercy, 
 where Blanche wished to do some shopping. 
 
 So, when the two men had left to ascend the 
 steep hillside, where the great fortress lay con- 
 cealed, Blanche, who had by long residence in 
 France become almost a Frenchwoman, kissed 
 little Ninette au revoir, mounted into the car, and, 
 taking the wheel, drove Enid and Jean, the ser- 
 vant, who, as a soldier, had served Paul during 
 the war, away along the winding valley. 
 
 As they went along they passed a battalion 
 of the 113th Regiment of the Line, heavy with 
 their knapsacks, their red trousers dusty, return- 
 ing from the long morning march, and singing 
 as they went that very old regimental ditty which 
 every soldier of France knows so well: 
 
 "La Noire est file du cannon 
 Q.UI se font du qu'en dira-t-on. 
 Nous nous foutons de ses vertus, 
 Puisqu'elle a les tetons pointuf. 
 
 Foila pourquoi nous la chantont; 
 
 Vive la Noire et sea tetons!"
 
 The Little Old Frenchwoman 99 
 
 And as they passed the ladies the officer sa- 
 luted. They were, Blanche explained, on their 
 way back to the great camp at Jarny. 
 
 Bugles were sounding among the hills, while 
 ever and anon came the low boom of distant ar- 
 tillery at practice away in the direction of Vig- 
 neulles-les-Hattonchatel, the headquarters of the 
 sub-division of that military region. 
 
 It was Enid's first visit, and the activity about 
 her surprised her. Besides, the officers were ex- 
 tremely good-looking. 
 
 Presently they approached a battery of ar- 
 tillery on the march, with their rumbling guns and 
 grey ammunition wagons, raising a cloud of dust 
 as they advanced. 
 
 Blanche pulled the car up at the side of the 
 road to allow them to pass, and as she did so a 
 tall, smartly-groomed major rode up to her, and, 
 saluting, exclaimed in French, " Bon jour, 
 Madame ! I intended to call upon you this morn- 
 ing. My wife has heard that you have the gen- 
 eral, your father, visiting you, and we wanted 
 to know if you would all come and take dinner 
 with us to-morrow night? " 
 
 " I'm sure we'd be most delighted," replied 
 Paul's wife, at the same time introducing Enid 
 to Major Delagrange. 
 
 " My father has gone up to the fort with
 
 TOO The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 my husband," Blanche added, bending over from 
 the car. 
 
 " Ah, then I shall meet them at noon,'* re- 
 plied the smart officer, backing his bay horse. 
 "And you ladies are going out for a run, eh? 
 Beautiful morning! We've been out manoeuv- 
 ring since six ! " 
 
 Blanche explained that they were on a shop- 
 ping expedition to Commercy, and then, saluting, 
 Delagrange set spurs into his horse and galloped 
 away after the retreating battery. 
 
 " That man's wife is one of my best friends. 
 She speaks English very well, and is quite a good 
 sort. Delagrange and Paul were in Tonquin to- 
 gether and are great friends." 
 
 " I suppose you are never very dull here, with 
 so much always going on? " Enid remarked. 
 ' Why anyone would believe that a war was actu- 
 ally in progress ! " 
 
 " This post of Eastern France never sleeps, 
 my dear," was Madame's reply. ' While you in 
 England remain secure in your island, we here 
 never know when trouble may again arise. 
 Therefore, we are always preparing and at the 
 same time always prepared." 
 
 " It must be most exciting," declared the girl, 
 " to live in such uncertainty. Is the danger so 
 very real, then? " she asked. " Father generally
 
 The Little Old Frenchwoman 101 
 
 pooh-poohs the notion of there being any further 
 trouble with Germany." 
 
 " I know," was Blanche's answer. " He has 
 been sceptical hitherto. He is always suspicious 
 of theBoche!" 
 
 They had driven up to the little wayside sta- 
 tion, and, giving the car over to Jean with in- 
 structions to meet the five-forty train, they en- 
 tered a first-class compartment. 
 
 Between Dieue and Commercy the railway 
 follows the course of the Meuse the whole way, 
 winding up a narrow, fertile valley, the hills of 
 which on the right, which once were swept by the 
 enemy's shells and completely devastated, were 
 all strongly fortified with great guns commanding 
 the plain that lies between the Meuse and the 
 Moselle. 
 
 They were passing through one of the most 
 interesting districts in all France that quiet, fer- 
 tile valley where stood peaceful, prosperous 
 homesteads, and where the sheep were once more 
 calmly grazing the valley which for four years 
 was so strongly contested, and where every vil- 
 lage had been more or less destroyed. 
 
 At the headquarters of the Sixth Army Corps 
 of France much was known, much that was still 
 alarming. It was that knowledge which urged 
 on those ever active military preparations, for
 
 102 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 placing that district of France that had been rav- 
 aged by the Hun in the Great War in a state of 
 complete fortification as a second line of defence 
 should trouble again arise. 
 
 Thoughts such as these arose in Enid's mind 
 as she sat in silence looking forth upon the pano- 
 rama of green hills and winding stream as they 
 slowly approached the quaint town of Commercy. 
 
 Arrived there, the pair lunched at the old- 
 fashioned Hotel de Paris, under the shadow of 
 the great chateau, once the residence of the Dukes 
 de Lorraine, and much damaged in the war, but 
 nowadays a hive of activity as an infantry bar- 
 racks. And afterwards they went forth to do 
 their shopping in the busy little Rue de la Re- 
 publique, not forgetting to buy a box of " made- 
 leines." As shortbread is the specialty of Edin- 
 burgh, as butterscotch is that of Doncaster* 
 " maids-of -honour " that of Richmond, and 
 strawberry jam that of Bar-le-Duc, so are 
 " madeleines " the special cakes of Commercy. 
 
 The town was full of officers and soldiers. In 
 every cafe officers were smoking cigarettes and 
 gossiping after their dejeuner; while ever and 
 anon bugles sounded, and there was the clang and 
 clatter of military movement. 
 
 As the two ladies approached the big bronze 
 statue of Dom Calmet, the historian, they passed
 
 The Little Old Frenchwoman 103 
 
 a small cafe. Suddenly a man idling within over 
 a newspaper sprang to his feet in surprise, and 
 next second drew back as if in fear of observation. 
 
 It was Walter Fetherston. He had come up 
 from Nancy that morning, and had since occu- 
 pied the time in strolling about seeing the sights 
 of the little place. 
 
 His surprise at seeing Enid was very great. 
 He knew that she was staying in the vicinity, but 
 had never expected to see her so quickly. 
 
 The lady who accompanied her he guessed to 
 be her stepsister; indeed, he had seen a photo- 
 graph of her at Hill Street. Had Enid been 
 alone, he would have rushed forth to greet her; 
 but he had no desire at the moment that his pres- 
 ence should be known to Madame Le Pontois. 
 He was there to watch, and to meet Enid but 
 alone. 
 
 So after a few moments he cautiously went 
 forth from the cafe, and followed the two ladies 
 at a respectful distance, until he saw them com- 
 plete their purchases and afterwards enter the 
 station to return home. 
 
 On his return to the hotel he made many in- 
 quiries of monsieur the proprietor concerning the 
 distance to Haudiomont, and learned a good 
 deal about the military works there which was of 
 the greatest interest. The hotel-keeper, a stout
 
 104 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 Alsatian, was a talkative person, and told Wal- 
 ter nearly all he wished to know. 
 
 Since leaving Charing Cross five days before 
 he had been ever active. On his arrival in Paris 
 he had gone to the apartment of Colonel May- 
 nard, the British military attache, and spent the 
 evening with him. Then, at one o'clock next 
 morning, he had hurriedly taken his bag and left 
 for Dijon, where at noon he had been met in the 
 Cafe de la Rotonde by a little wizen-faced old 
 Frenchwoman in seedy black, who had travelled 
 for two days and nights in order to meet him. 
 
 Together they had walked out on that un- 
 frequented road beyond the Place Darcy, chat- 
 ting confidentially as they went, the old lady 
 speaking emphatically and with many gesticula- 
 tions as they walked. 
 
 Truth to tell, this insignificant-looking person 
 was a woman of many secrets. She was a 
 " friend " of the Surete Generate in Paris. She 
 lived, and lived well, in a pretty apartment in 
 Paris upon the handsome salary which she re- 
 ceived regularly each quarter. But she was sel- 
 dom at home. Like Walter, her days were spent 
 travelling hither and thither across Europe. 
 
 It would surprise the public if it were aware 
 of the truth the truth of how, in every country 
 in Europe, there are secret female agents of po-
 
 The Little Old Frenchwoman 105 
 
 lice who (for a monetary consideration, of 
 course) keep watch in great centres where the 
 presence of a man would be suspected. 
 
 This secret police service is distinctly apart 
 from the detective service. The female police 
 agent in all countries works independently, at the 
 orders of the Director of Criminal Investigation, 
 and is known to him and his immediate staff. 
 
 Whatever information that wrinkled-faced 
 old Frenchwoman in shabby black had imparted 
 to Fetherston it was of an entirely confidential 
 character. It, however, caused him to leave her 
 about three o'clock, hurry to the Gare Porte- 
 Neuve, and, after hastily swallowing a liqueur of 
 brandy in the buffet, depart for Langres. 
 
 Thence he had travelled to Nancy, where he 
 had taken up quarters at the Grand Hotel in the 
 Place Stanislas, and had there remained for two 
 days in order to rest. 
 
 He would not have idled those autumn days 
 away so lazily, even though he so urgently re- 
 quired rest after that rapid travelling, had he but 
 known that the person who occupied the next 
 room to his that middle-aged commercial travel- 
 ler an entirely inoffensive person who possessed 
 a red beard, and who had given the name of Jules 
 Dequanter, and his nationality as Belgian, native 
 of Liege was none other than Gustav Heureux,
 
 io6 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 the man who had been recalled from New York 
 by the evasive doctor of Pimlico. 
 
 And further, Fetherston, notwithstanding his 
 acuteness in observation, was in blissful igno- 
 rance, as he strolled back from the station at Com- 
 mercy, up the old-world street, that a short dis- 
 tance behind him, carefully watching all his move- 
 ments, was the man Joseph Blot himself the 
 man known in dingy Pimlico as Dr. Weirmarsh.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 IF ANYONE KNEW 
 
 SIE HUGH ELCOMBE spent a most interesting 
 and instructive day within the Fortress of Hau- 
 diomont. He really did not want to go. The 
 visit bored him. The world was at peace, and 
 there was no incentive to espionage as there had 
 been in pre-war days. 
 
 General Henri Molon, the commandant, 
 greeted him cordially and himself showed him 
 over a portion of the post-war defences which 
 were kept such a strict secret from everyone. The 
 general did not, however, show his distinguished 
 guest everything. Such things as the new anti- 
 aircraft gun, the exact disposition of the huge 
 mines placed in the valley between there and 
 Rozellier, so that at a given signal both road 
 and railway tracks could be destroyed, he did not 
 point out. There were other matters to which the 
 smart, grey-haired, old French general deemed it 
 unwise to refer, even though his visitor might be 
 a high official of a friendly Power. 
 
 Sir Hugh noticed all this and smiled inward- 
 ly. He wandered about the bomb-proof case- 
 
 107
 
 io8 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 mates hewn out of the solid rock, caring noth- 
 ing for the number and calibre of the guns, their 
 armoured protection, or the chart-like diagrams 
 upon the walls, ranges and the like. 
 
 " What a glorious evening! " Paul was say- 
 ing as, at sunset, they set their faces towards the 
 valley beyond which lay shattered Germany. 
 That peaceful land, the theatre of the recent war, 
 lay bathed in the soft rose of the autumn after- 
 glow, while the bright clearness of the sky, pale- 
 green and gold, foretold a frost. 
 
 ' Yes, splendid! " responded his father-in-law 
 mechanically; but he was thinking of something 
 far more serious than the beauties of the western 
 sky. He was thinking of the grip in which he 
 was held by the doctor of Pimlico. At any mo- 
 ment, if he cared to collapse, he could make ten 
 thousand pounds in a single day. The career of 
 many a man has been blasted for ever by the ut- 
 terance of cruel untruths or the repetition of 
 vague suspicions. Was his son-in-law, Le Pon- 
 tois, in jeopardy? He could not think that he 
 was. How could the truth come out? Sir Hugh 
 asked himself. It never had before though his 
 friend had made a million sterling, and there was 
 no reason whatever why it should come out now. 
 He had tested Weirmarsh thoroughly, and knew 
 him to be a man to be trusted.
 
 If Anyone Knew 109 
 
 As he strolled on at his son-in-law's side, chat- 
 ting to him, he was full of anxiety as to the fu- 
 ture. He had left England, it was true. He had 
 defied the doctor. But the latter had been inex- 
 orable. If he continued in his defiance, then 
 ruin must inevitably come to him. 
 
 Blanche and Enid had already returned, and 
 at dusk all four sat down to dinner together with 
 little Ninette, for whom " Aunt Enid " had 
 brought a new doll which had given the child the 
 greatest delight. 
 
 The meal ended, the bridge-table was set in 
 the pretty salon adjoining, and several games 
 were played until Sir Hugh, pleading fatigue, 
 at last ascended to his room. 
 
 Within, he locked the door and cast himself 
 into a chair before the big log fire to think. 
 
 That day had indeed been a strenuous one 
 strenuous for any man. So occupied had been 
 his brain that he scarcely recollected any conver- 
 sations with those smart debonair officers to 
 whom Paul had introduced him. 
 
 As he sat there he closed his eyes, and before 
 him arose visions of interviews in dingy offices 
 in London, one of them behind Soho Square. 
 
 For a full hour he sat there immovable as a 
 statue, reflecting, ever recalling the details of 
 those events.
 
 i io The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 Suddenly he sprang to his feet with clenched 
 hands. 
 
 " My God! " he cried, his teeth set and coun- 
 tenance pale. "My God! If anybody ever 
 knew the truth ! " 
 
 He crossed to the window, drew aside the 
 blind, and looked out upon the moonlit plains. 
 
 Below, his daughter was still playing the 
 piano and singing an old English ballad. 
 
 "She's happy, ah! my dear Blanche!" the 
 old man murmured between his teeth. " But if 
 suspicion falls upon me? Ah! if it does; then it 
 means ruin to them both ruin because of a das- 
 tardly action of mine ! " 
 
 He returned unsteadily to his chair, and sat 
 staring straight into the embers, his hands to 
 his hot, fevered brow. More than once he sighed 
 sighed heavily, as a man when fettered and 
 compelled to act against his better nature. 
 
 Again he heard his daughter's voice below, 
 now singing a gay little French chanson, a song 
 of the cafe chantant and of the Paris boulevards. 
 
 In a flash there recurred to him every inci- 
 dent of those dramatic interviews with the Me- 
 phistophelean doctor. He would at that moment 
 have given his very soul to be free of that calm, 
 clever, insinuating man who, while providing him 
 with a handsome, even unlimited income, yet at
 
 If Anyone Knew m 
 
 the same time held him irrevocably in the hollow 
 of his hand. 
 
 He, a brilliant British soldier with a magni- 
 ficent record, honoured by his sovereign, was, 
 after all, but a tool of that obscure doctor, the 
 man who had come into his life to rescue him 
 from bankruptcy and disgrace. 
 
 When he reflected he bit his lip in despair. 
 Yet there was no way out none! Weirmarsh 
 had really been most generous. The cosy house 
 in Hill Street, the smart little entertainments 
 which his wife gave, the bit of shooting he rented 
 up in the Highlands, were all paid for with the 
 money which the doctor handed him in Treasury 
 notes with such regularity. 
 
 Yes, Weirmarsh was generous, but he was 
 nevertheless exacting, terribly exacting. His will 
 was the will of others. 
 
 The blazing logs had died down to a red mass, 
 the voice of Blanche had ceased. He had heard 
 footsteps an hour ago in the corridor outside, and 
 knew that the family had retired. There was 
 not a sound. All were asleep, save the sentries 
 high upon that hidden fortress. Again the old 
 general sighed wearily. His grey face now wore 
 an expression of resignation. He had thought 
 it all out, and saw that to resist and refuse would 
 only spell ruin for both himself and his family.
 
 ii2 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 He had but himself to blame after all. He had 
 taken one false step, and he had been held in- 
 exorably to his contract. 
 
 So he yawned wearily, rose, stretched him- 
 self, and then, pacing the room twice, at last 
 turned up the lamp and placed it upon the small 
 writing-table at the foot of the bed. Afterwards 
 he took from his suit-case a quire of ruled fools- 
 cap paper and a fountain pen, and, seating him- 
 self, sat for some time with his head in his hands 
 deep in thought. Suddenly the clock in the big 
 hall below chimed two upon its peal of silvery 
 bells. This aroused him, and, taking up his pen, 
 he began to write. 
 
 Ever and anon as he wrote he sat back and re- 
 flected. 
 
 Hour after hour he sat there, bent to the ta- 
 ble, his pen rapidly travelling over the paper. 
 He wrote down many figures and was making 
 calculations. 
 
 At half-past four he put down his pen. The 
 sum was not complete, but it was one which he 
 knew would end his career and bring him into the 
 dock of a criminal court, and Weirmarsh and 
 others would stand beside him. 
 
 All this he had done in entire ignorance of 
 one startling fact namely, that outside his win- 
 dow for the past hour a dark figure had been
 
 If Anyone Knew 113 
 
 standing in an insecure position upon the lead 
 guttering of the wing of the chateau which ran 
 out at right angles, leaning forward and peering 
 in between the blind and the window-frame, 
 watching with interest all that had been in prog- 
 ress.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 CONCERNS THE PAST 
 
 ONE evening, a few days after Sir Hugh had 
 paid another visit to Haudiomont, he was smok- 
 ing with Paul prior to retiring to bed when the 
 conversation drifted upon money matters some 
 investment he had made in England in his wife's 
 name. 
 
 Paul had allowed his father-in-law to handle 
 some of his money in England, for Sir Hugh 
 was very friendly with a man named Hewett in 
 the City, who had on several occasions put him 
 on good things. 
 
 Indeed, just before Sir Hugh had left Lon- 
 don he had had a wire from Paul to sell some 
 shares at a big profit, and he had brought over 
 the proceeds in Treasury notes, quite a respect- 
 able sum. There had been a matter of concealing 
 certain payments, Sir Hugh explained, and that 
 was why he had brought over the money instead 
 of a cheque. 
 
 As they were chatting Sir Hugh, referring to 
 the transaction, said: 
 
 114
 
 Concerns the Past 115 
 
 " Hewett suggested that I should have it in 
 notes four five-hundred Bank of England ones 
 and the rest in Treasury notes." 
 
 " I sent them to the Credit Lyonnais a few 
 days ago," replied his son-in-law. " Really, Sir 
 Hugh, you did a most excellent bit of business 
 with Hewett. I hope you profited yourself." 
 
 ' Yes, a little bit," laughed the old general. 
 " Can't complain, you know. I'm glad you've 
 sent the notes to the bank. It was a big sum to 
 keep in the house here." 
 
 ' Yes, I see only to-day they've credited me 
 with them," was his reply. " I hope you can in- 
 duce Hewett to do a bit more for us. Those aero- 
 plane shares are still going up, I see by the Lon- 
 don papers." 
 
 " And they'll continue to do so, my dear 
 Paul," was the reply. " But those Bolivian four 
 per cents, of yours I'd sell if I were you. They'll 
 never be higher." 
 
 "You don't think so?" 
 
 " Hewett warned me. He told me to tell you. 
 Of course, you're richer than I am, and can 
 afford to keep them. Only I warn you." 
 
 4 Very well," replied the younger man, 
 " when you get back, sell them, will you ? " 
 
 And Sir Hugh promised that he would give 
 instructions to that effect.
 
 ii6 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 "Really, my dear beau-pere," Paul said, 
 " you've been an awfully good friend to me. 
 Since I left the army I've made quite a big sum 
 out of my speculations in London." 
 
 " And mostly paid with English notes, eh? " 
 laughed the elder man. 
 
 " Yes. Just let me see." And, taking a piece 
 of paper, he sat down at the writing-table and 
 made some quick calculations of various sums. 
 Upon one side he placed the money he had in- 
 vested, and on the other the profits, at last strik- 
 ing a balance at the end. Then he told the gen- 
 eral the figure. 
 
 " Quite good," declared Sir Hugh. " I'm only 
 too glad, my dear Paul, to be of any assistance 
 to you. I fear you are vegetating here. But as 
 long as your wife doesn't mind it, what matters? " 
 
 " Blanche loves this country which is for- 
 tunate, seeing that I have this big place to attend 
 to." And as he said this he rose, screwed up the 
 sheet of thin note-paper, and tossed it into the 
 waste-paper basket. 
 
 The pair separated presently, and Sir Hugh 
 went to his room. He was eager and anxious to 
 get away and return to London, but there was 
 a difficulty. Enid, who had lately taken up ama- 
 teur theatricals, had accepted an invitation to 
 play in a comedy to be given at General Molon's
 
 Concerns the Past 117 
 
 house in a week's time in aid of the Croix Rouge. 
 Therefore he was compelled to remain on her ac- 
 count. 
 
 On the following afternoon Blanche drove 
 him in her car through the beautiful Bois de Her- 
 meville, glorious in its autumn gold, down to the 
 quaint old village of Warcq, to take " fif o'clock " 
 at the chateau with the Countess de Pierrepont, 
 Paul's widowed aunt. 
 
 Enid had pleaded a headache, but as soon as 
 the car had driven away she roused herself, and, 
 ascending to her room, put on strong country 
 boots and a leather-hemmed golf skirt, and, tak- 
 ing a stick, set forth down the high road lined with 
 poplars in the direction of Mars-le-Tour. 
 
 About a mile from Lerouville she came to the 
 cross-roads, the one to the south leading over the 
 hills to Vigneulles, while the one to the north 
 joined the highway to Longuyon. For a moment 
 she paused, then turning into the latter road, 
 which at that point was little more than a byway, 
 hurried on until she came to the fringe of a wood, 
 where, upon her approach, a man in dark grey 
 tweeds came forth to meet her with swinging 
 gait. 
 
 It was Walter Fetherston. 
 
 He strode quickly in her direction, and when 
 they met he held her small hand in his and for
 
 n8 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 a moment gazed into her dark eyes without utter- 
 ing a word. 
 
 " At last! " he cried. " I was afraid that you 
 had not received my message that it might have 
 been intercepted." 
 
 " I got it early this morning," was her reply, 
 her cheeks flushing with pleasure ; " but I was 
 unable to get away before my father and Blanche 
 went out. They pressed me to go with them, so 
 I had to plead a headache." 
 
 " I am so glad we've met," Fetherston said, 
 " I have been here in the vicinity for days, yet 
 I feared to come near you lest your father should 
 recognise me." 
 
 " But why are you here? " she inquired, stroll- 
 ing slowly at his side. " I thought you were in 
 London." 
 
 " I'm seldom in London," he responded. 
 " Nowadays I am constantly on the move." 
 
 ' Travelling in search of fresh material for 
 your books, I suppose? I read in a paper the 
 other day that you never describe a place ii> your 
 stories without first visiting it. If so, you must 
 travel a great deal," the girl remarked. 
 
 " I do," he answered briefly. "And rery 
 often I travel quickly." 
 
 " But why are you here? "
 
 Concerns the Past 119 
 
 " For several reasons the chief being to see 
 you, Enid." 
 
 For a moment the girl did not reply. This 
 man's movements so often mystified her. He 
 seemed ubiquitous. In one single fortnight he 
 had sent her letters from Paris, Stockholm, Ham- 
 burg, Vienna and Constanza. His huge circle of 
 friends was unequalled. In almost every city 
 on the Continent he knew somebody, and he was 
 a perfect encyclopaedia of travel. His strange 
 reticence, however, always increased the mystery 
 surrounding him. Those vague whispers con- 
 cerning him had reached her ears, and she often 
 wondered whether half she heard concerning him 
 was true. 
 
 If a man prefers not to speak of himself or of 
 his doings, his enemies will soon invent some tale 
 of their own. And thus it was in Walter's case. 
 Men had uttered foul calumnies concerning him 
 merely because they believed him to be eccentric 
 and unsociable. 
 
 But Enid Orlebar, though she somehow 
 held him in suspicion, nevertheless liked him. In 
 certain moods he possessed that dash and devil- 
 may-care air which pleases most women, pro- 
 viding the man is a cosmopolitan. 
 
 He was ever courteous, ever solicitous for her 
 welfare.
 
 120 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 She had known he loved her ever since they 
 had first met. Indeed, has he not told her so? 
 
 As they walked together down that grass- 
 grown byway through the wood, where the brown 
 leaves were floating down with every gust, she 
 glanced into his pale, dark, serious face and won- 
 dered. In her nostrils was the autumn perfume 
 of the woods, and as they strode forward in si- 
 lence a rabbit scuttled from their path. 
 
 ' You are, no doubt, surprised that I am 
 here," he commenced at last. " But it is in your 
 interests, Enid." 
 
 "In my interests?" she echoed. "Why?" 
 
 " Regarding the secret relations between your 
 stepfather and Doctor Weirmarsh," he answered. 
 
 ;< That same question we've discussed before," 
 she said. ' The doctor is attending to his practice 
 in Pimlico; he does not concern us here." 
 
 " I fear that he does," was Fetherston's quiet 
 response. " That man holds your stepfather's 
 future in his hand." 
 
 " How how can he? " 
 
 " By the same force by which he holds that 
 indescribable influence over you." 
 
 ' You believe, then, that he possesses some 
 occult power? " 
 
 " Not at all. His power is the power which 
 every evil man possesses. And as far as my
 
 Concerns the Past 121 
 
 observation goes, I can detect that Sir Hugh has 
 fallen into some trap which has been cunningly 
 prepared for him." 
 
 Enid gasped and her countenance blanched. 
 ' You believe, then, that those consultations 
 I have had with the doctor are at his own instiga- 
 tion?" 
 
 " Most certainly. Sir Hugh hates Weir- 
 marsh, but, fearing exposure, he must obey the 
 fellow's will." 
 
 " But cannot you discover the truth? " asked 
 the girl eagerly. " Cannot we free my step- 
 father? He's such a dear old fellow, and is al- 
 ways so good and kind to my mother and my- 
 self." 
 
 ' That is exactly my object in asking you to 
 meet me here, Enid," said the novelist, his coun- 
 tenance still thoughtful and serious. 
 
 " How can I assist? " she asked quickly. 
 " Only explain, and I will act upon any sugges- 
 tion you may make." 
 
 ' You can assist by giving me answers to cer- 
 tain questions," was his slow reply. The inquiry 
 was delicate and difficult to pursue without 
 arousing the girl's suspicions as to the exact situ- 
 ation and the hideous scandal in progress. 
 
 " What do you wish to know? " she asked in
 
 i22 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 some surprise, for she saw by his countenance 
 that he was deeply in earnest. 
 
 " Well," he said, with some little hesitation, 
 glancing at her pale, handsome face as he walked 
 by her side, " I fear you may think me too in- 
 quisitive that the questions I'm going to ask 
 are out of sheer curiosity." 
 
 " I shall not if by replying I can assist my 
 stepfather to escape from that man's thraldom." 
 
 He was silent for a moment; then he said 
 slowly: " I think Sir Hugh was in command of 
 a big training camp in Norfolk early in the war, 
 was he not? " 
 
 ' Yes. I went with him, and we stayed for 
 about three months at the King's Head at 
 Beccles." 
 
 " And during the time you were at the King's 
 Head, did the doctor ever visit Sir Hugh? " 
 
 ' Yes ; the doctor stayed several times at the 
 Royal at Lowestoft. We both motored over on 
 several occasions and dined with him. Doctor 
 Weirmarsh was not well, so he had gone to the 
 east coast for a change." 
 
 " And he also came over to Beccles to see your 
 stepfather?" 
 
 ' Yes ; twice, or perhaps three times. One 
 evening after dinner, I remember, they left the 
 hotel and went for a long walk together. I rec-
 
 Concerns the Past 123 
 
 ollect it well, for I had been out all day and had 
 a bad headache. Therefore, the doctor went 
 along to the chemist's on his way out and ordered 
 me a draught." 
 "You took it?" 
 
 * Yes ; and I went to sleep almost immedi- 
 ately, and did not wake up till very late next 
 morning," she replied. 
 
 ' You recollect, too, a certain man named 
 Bellairs?" 
 
 " Ah, yes ! " she sighed. " How very sad it 
 was! Poor Captain Bellairs was a great favour- 
 ite of the general, and served on his staff." 
 
 " He was with him in the Boer War, was he 
 not?" 
 
 ' Yes. But how do you know all this ? " asked 
 the girl, looking curiously at her questioner and 
 turning slightly paler. 
 
 * Well," he replied evasively, " I I've been 
 told so, and wished to know whether it was a fact. 
 You and he were friends, eh? " he asked after a 
 pause. 
 
 For a moment the girl did not reply. A flood 
 of sad*memories swept through her mind at the 
 mention of Harry Bellairs. 
 
 ' Yes," she replied, " we were great friends. 
 He took me to concerts and matinees in town 
 sometimes. Sir Hugh always said he was a man
 
 124 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 bound to make his mark. He had earned his 
 D.S.O. with French at Mons and was twice men- 
 tioned in dispatches." 
 
 " And you, Enid," he said, still speaking very 
 slowly, his dark eyes fixed upon hers, " you would 
 probably have consented to become Mrs. Bellairs 
 had he lived to ask you? Tell me the truth." 
 
 Her eyes were cast down ; he saw in them the 
 light of unshed tears. 
 
 " Pardon me for referring to such a painful 
 subject," he hastened to say, " but it is impera- 
 tive." 
 
 " I thought that you were were unaware of 
 the sad affair," she faltered. 
 
 " So I was until quite recently," he replied. 
 " I know how deeply it must pain you to speak 
 of it, but will you please explain to me the actual 
 facts? I know that you are better acquainted 
 with them than anyone else." 
 
 ' The facts of poor Harry's death," she re- 
 peated hoarsely, as though speaking to herself. 
 " Why recall them? Oh ! why recall them? "
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 REVEALS A CURIOUS PROBLEM 
 
 THE countenance of Enid Orlebar had changed ; 
 her cheeks were deathly white, and her face was 
 sufficient index to a mind overwhelmed with grief 
 and regret. 
 
 " I asked you to explain, because I fear that 
 my information may be faulty. Captain Bellairs 
 died died suddenly, did he not? " 
 
 ' Yes. It was a great blow to my stepfather," 
 the girl said; "and and by his unfortunate 
 death I lost one of my best friends." 
 
 ' Tell me exactly how it occurred. I believe 
 the tragic event happened on September the sec- 
 ond, did it not? " 
 
 * Yes," she replied. " Mother and I had been 
 staying at the White Hart at Salisbury while Sir 
 Hugh had been inspecting some troops. Captain 
 Bellairs had been with us, as usual, but had been 
 sent up to London by my stepfather. That same 
 day I returned to London alone on my way to a 
 visit up in Yorkshire, and arrived at Hill Street 
 about seven o'clock. At a quarter to ten at night 
 I received an urgent note from Captain Bellairs, 
 
 125
 
 i26 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 brought by a messenger, and written in a shaky 
 hand, asking me to call at once at his chambers 
 in Half Moon Street. He explained that he had 
 been taken suddenly ill, and that he wished to 
 see me upon a most important and private mat- 
 ter. He asked me to go to him, as it was most 
 urgent. Mother and I had been to his chambers 
 to tea several times before; therefore, realising 
 the urgency of his message, I found a taxi and 
 went at once to him." 
 
 She broke off short, and with difficulty swal- 
 lowed the lump which arose in her throat. 
 
 ; 'Well?" asked Fetherston in a low, sym- 
 pathetic voice. 
 
 " When I arrived," she said, " I I found 
 him lying dead! He had expired just as I as- 
 cended the stairs." 
 
 " Then you learned nothing, eh? " 
 
 " Nothing," she said in a low voice. " I have 
 ever since wondered what could have been the 
 private matter upon which he so particularly de- 
 sired to see me. He felt death creeping upon 
 him, or or else he knew himself to be a doomed 
 man or he would never have penned me that 
 note." 
 
 " The letter in question was not mentioned at 
 the inquest? " 
 
 " No. My stepfather urged me to regard the
 
 Reveals a Curious Problem 127 
 
 affair as a strict secret. He feared a scandal be- 
 cause I had gone to Harry's rooms." 
 
 * You have no idea, then, what was the na- 
 ture of the communication which the captain 
 wished to make to you ? " asked the novelist. 
 
 " Not the slightest," replied the girl, yet with 
 some hesitation. " It is all a mystery a mystery 
 which has ever haunted me a mystery which 
 haunts me now !" 
 
 They had halted, and were standing together 
 beneath a great oak, already partially bare of 
 leaves. He looked into her beautiful face, sweet 
 and full of purity as a child's. Then, in a low, 
 intense voice, he said: " Cannot you be quite 
 frank with me, Enid cannot you give me more 
 minute details of the sad affair? Captain Bel- 
 lairs was in his usual health that day when he left 
 you at Salisbury, was he not? " 
 
 " Oh, yes. I drove him to the station in our 
 car." 
 
 " Have you any idea why your stepfather sent 
 him up to London? " 
 
 " Not exactly, except that at breakfast he 
 said to my mother that he must send Bellairs up 
 to London. That was all." 
 
 " And at his rooms, whom did you find? " 
 
 " Barker, his man," she replied. ' The story 
 he told me was a curious one, namely, that his
 
 128 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 master had arrived from Salisbury at two o'clock, 
 and at half -past two had sent him out upon a 
 message down to Richmond. On his return, a 
 little after five, he found his master absent, but 
 the place smelt strongly of perfume, which 
 seemed to point to the fact that the captain had 
 had a lady visitor." 
 
 " He had no actual proof of that? " exclaimed 
 Fetherston, interrupting. 
 
 " I think not. He surmised it from the fact 
 that his master disliked scent, even in his toilet 
 soap. Again, upon the table in the hall Barker's 
 quick eye noticed a small white feather; this he 
 showed me, and it was evidently from a feather 
 boa. In the fire-grate a letter had been burnt. 
 These two facts had aroused the man-servant's 
 curiosity." 
 
 ' What time did the captain return? " 
 
 " Almost immediately. He changed into his 
 dinner jacket, and went forth again, saying that 
 he intended to dine at the Naval and Military 
 Club, and return to his rooms in time to change 
 and catch the eleven-fifteen train from Waterloo 
 for Salisbury that same night. He even told 
 Barker which suit of clothes to prepare. It seems, 
 however, that he came in about a quarter-past 
 nine, and sent Barker on a message to Waterloo 
 Station. On the man's return he found his mas-
 
 Reveals a Curious Problem 129 
 
 ter fainting in his arm-chair. He called Barker 
 to get him a glass of water his throat seemed 
 on fire, he said. Then, obtaining pen and paper, 
 he wrote that hurried message to me. Barker 
 stated that three minutes after addressing the en- 
 velope he fell into a state of coma, the only word 
 he uttered being my name." And she pressed 
 her lips together. 
 
 " It is evident, then, that he earnestly desired 
 to speak to you to tell you something," her com- 
 panion remarked. 
 
 ' Yes," she went on quickly. " I found him 
 lying back in his big arm-chair, quite dead. Bar- 
 ker had feared to leave his side, and summoned 
 the doctor and messenger-boy by telephone. 
 When I entered, however, the doctor had not ar- 
 rived." 
 
 " It was a thousand pities that you were too 
 late. He wished to make some important state- 
 ment to you, without a doubt." 
 
 " I rushed to him at once, but, alas! was just 
 too late." 
 
 " He carried that secret, whatever it was, with 
 him to the grave," Fetherston said reflectively. 
 " I wonder what it could have been? " 
 
 " Ah ! " sighed the girl, her face yet paler. 
 " I wonder I constantly wonder." 
 
 ' The doctors who made the post-mortem
 
 i3 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 could not account for the death, I believe. I 
 have read the account of the inquest." 
 
 " Ah! then you know what transpired there/* 
 the girl said quickly. " I was in court, but was 
 not called as a witness. There was no reason 
 why I should be asked to make any statement, for 
 Barker, in his evidence, made no mention of the 
 letter which the dead man had sent me. I sat 
 and heard the doctors both of whom expressed 
 themselves puzzled. The coroner put it to them 
 whether they suspected foul play, but the reply 
 they gave was a distinctly negative one." 
 
 :< The poor fellow's death was a mystery," her 
 companion said. " I noticed that an open ver- 
 dict was returned." 
 
 ' Yes. The most searching inquiry was made, 
 although the true facts regarding it were never 
 made public. Sir Hugh explained one day at 
 the breakfast-table that in addition to the two 
 doctors who made the examination of the body, 
 Professors Dale and Boyd, the analysts of the 
 Home Office, also made extensive experiments, 
 but could detect no symptom of poisoning." 
 
 " Where he had dined that night has never 
 been discovered, eh? " 
 
 " Never. He certainly did not dine at the 
 club." 
 
 " He may have dined with his lady visitor,"
 
 Reveals a Curious Problem 131 
 
 Fetherston remarked, his eyes fixed upon her. 
 
 She hesitated for a moment, as though un- 
 willing to admit that Bellairs should have enter- 
 tained the unknown lady in secret. 
 
 " He may have done so, of course," she said 
 with some reluctance. 
 
 ' Was there any other fact beside the feather 
 which would lead one to suppose that a lady had 
 visited him?" 
 
 " Only the perfume. Barker declared that it 
 was a sweet scent, such as he had never smelt 
 before. The whole place * reeked with it/ as he 
 put it." 
 
 " No one saw the lady call at his chambers? " 
 
 " Nobody came forward with any statement," 
 replied the girl. " I myself made every inquiry 
 possible, but, as you know, a woman is much 
 handicapped in such a matter. Barker, who was 
 devoted to his master, spared no effort, but he 
 has discovered nothing." 
 
 " For aught we know to the contrary, Captain 
 Bellairs' death may have been due to perfectly 
 natural causes," Fetherston remarked. 
 
 "*It may have been, but the fact of his mys- 
 terious lady visitor, and that he dined at some 
 unknown place on that evening, aroused my sus- 
 picions. Yet there was no evidence whatever 
 either of poison or of foul play."
 
 i3 2 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 Fetherston raised his eyes and shot a covert 
 glance at her a glance of distinct suspicion. His 
 keen, calm gaze was upon her, noting the un- 
 usual expression upon her countenance, and how 
 her gloved fingers had clenched themselves 
 slightly as she had spoken. Was she telling him 
 all that she knew concerning the extraordinary 
 affair? That was the question which had arisen 
 at that moment within his mind. 
 
 He had perused carefully the cold, formal re- 
 ports which had appeared in the newspapers con- 
 cerning the " sudden death " of Captain Henry 
 Bellairs, and had read suspicion between the lines, 
 as only one versed in mysteries of crime could 
 read. Were not such mysteries the basis of his 
 profession? He had been first attracted by it as 
 a possible plot for a novel, but, on investigation, 
 had discovered, to his surprise, that Bellairs had 
 been Sir Hugh's trusted secretary and the friend 
 of Enid Orlebar. 
 
 The poor fellow had died in a manner both 
 sudden and mysterious, as a good many persons 
 die annually. To the outside world there was no 
 suspicion whatever of foul play. 
 
 Yet, being in possession of certain secret 
 knowledge, Fetherston had formed a theory 
 one that was amazing and startling a theory
 
 Reveals a Curious Problem 133 
 
 which he had, after long deliberation, made up 
 his mind to investigate and prove. 
 
 This girl had loved Harry Bellairs before he 
 had met her, and because of it the poor fellow 
 had fallen beneath the hand of a secret assassin. 
 
 She stood there in ignorance that he had al- 
 ready seen and closely questioned Barker in Lon- 
 don, and that the man had made an admission, 
 an amazing statement namely, that the subtle 
 Eastern perfume upon Enid Orlebar, when she 
 arrived so hurriedly and excitedly at Half Moon 
 Street, was the same which had greeted his nos- 
 trils when he entered his master's chambers on 
 his return from that errand upon which he had 
 been sent. 
 
 Enid Orlebar had been in the captain's rooms 
 during his absence !
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE MYSTERIOUS MR. MALTWOOD 
 
 Now Enid Orlebar's story contained several dis- 
 crepancies. 
 
 She had declared that she arrived at Hill 
 Street about seven o'clock on that fateful second 
 of September. That might be true, but might 
 she not have arrived after her secret visit to Half 
 Moon Street? 
 
 In suppressing the fact that she had been 
 there at all she had acted with considerable fore- 
 sight. Naturally, her parents were not desirous 
 of the fact being stated publicly that she had 
 gone alone to a bachelor's rooms, and they had, 
 therefore, assisted her to preserve the secret 
 known only to Barker and to the doctor. Yet her 
 evidence had been regarded as immaterial, hence 
 she had not been called as witness. 
 
 Only Barker had suspected. That unusual 
 perfume about her had puzzled him. Yet how 
 could he make any direct charge against the gen- 
 eral's stepdaughter, who had always been most 
 generous to him in the matter of tips? Besides, 
 
 134
 
 The Mysterious Mr. Maltwood 135 
 
 did not the captain write a note to her with his 
 last dying effort? 
 
 What proof was there that the pair had not 
 dined together? Fetherston had already made 
 diligent inquiries at Hill Street, and had discov- 
 ered from the butler that Miss Enid, on her ar- 
 rival home from Salisbury, had changed her 
 gown and gone out in a taxi at a quarter to eight. 
 She had dined out but where was unknown. 
 
 It was quite true that she had come in before 
 ten o'clock, and soon afterwards had received a 
 note by boy-messenger. 
 
 In view of these facts it appeared quite cer- 
 tain to Fetherston that Enid and Harry Bellairs 
 had taken dinner tete-a-tete at some quiet res- 
 taurant. She was a merry, high-spirited girl to 
 whom such an adventure would certainly appeal. 
 
 After dinner they had parted, and he had 
 driven to his rooms. Then, feeling his strength 
 failing, he had hastily summoned her to his side. 
 
 Why? 
 
 If he had suspected her of being the author 
 of any foul play he most certainly would not have 
 begged her to come to him in his last moments. 
 No. The enigma grew more and more inscru- 
 table. 
 
 And yet there was a motive for poor Bellairs'
 
 136 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 tragic end one which, in the light of his own 
 knowledge, seemed only too apparent. 
 
 He strolled on beside the fair-faced girl, 
 deep in wonder. Recollections of that devil- 
 may-care cavalry officer who had been such a 
 good friend clouded her brow, and as she walked 
 her eyes were cast upon the ground in silent re- 
 flection. 
 
 She was wondering whether Walter Fether- 
 ston had guessed the truth, that she had loved 
 that man who had met with such an untimely end. 
 
 Her companion, on his part, was equally puz- 
 zled. That story of Barker's finding a white 
 feather was a curious one. It was true that the 
 man had found a white feather but he had also 
 learnt that when Enid Orlebar had arrived at 
 Hill Street she had been wearing a white feather 
 boa! 
 
 " It is not curious, after all," he said reflec- 
 tively, " that the police should have dismissed the 
 affair as a death from natural causes. At the in- 
 quest no suspicion whatever was aroused. I won- 
 der why Barker, in his evidence, made no men- 
 tion of that perfume or of the discovery of the 
 feather? " 
 
 And as he uttered those words he fixed his 
 grave eyes upon her, watching her countenance 
 intently.
 
 The Mysterious Mr. Maltwood 137 
 
 " Well," she replied, after a moment's hesita- 
 tion, " if he had it would have proved nothing, 
 would it? If the captain had received a lady vis- 
 itor in secret that afternoon it might have had 
 no connection with the circumstances of his death 
 six hours later." 
 
 " And yet it might," Fetherston remarked. 
 ' What more natural than that the lady who vis- 
 ited him clandestinely for Barker had, no doubt, 
 been sent out of the way on purpose that he 
 should not see her should have dined with him 
 later?" 
 
 The girl moved uneasily, tapping the ground 
 with her stick. 
 
 ' Then you suspect some woman of having 
 had a hand in his death?" she exclaimed in a 
 changed voice, her eyes again cast upon the 
 ground. 
 
 " I do not know sufficient of the details to 
 entertain any distinct suspicion," he replied. " I 
 regard the affair as a mystery, and in mysteries 
 I am always interested." 
 
 ' You intend to bring the facts into a book," 
 she remarked. " Ah ! I see." 
 
 " Perhaps if I obtain a solution of the enig- 
 ma for enigma it certainly is." 
 
 ' You agree with me, then, that poor Harry 
 was the victim of foul play? " she asked in a low,
 
 138 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 intense voice, eagerly watching his face the while. 
 
 ' Yes," he answered very slowly ,, " and, fur- 
 ther, that the woman who visited him that after- 
 noon was an accessory. Harry Bellairs was mur- 
 dered!" 
 
 Her cheeks blanched and she went pale to the 
 lips. He saw the sudden change in her, and real- 
 ised what a supreme effort she was making to 
 betray no undue alarm. But the effect of his 
 cold, calm words had been almost electrical. He 
 watched her countenance slowly flushing, but pre- 
 tended not to notice her confusion. And so he 
 walked on at her side, full of wonderment. 
 
 How much did she know ? Why, indeed, had 
 Harry Bellairs fallen the victim of a secret as- 
 sassin? 
 
 No trained officer of the Criminal Investiga- 
 tion Department was more ingenious in making 
 secret inquiries, more clever in his subterfuges 
 or in disguising his real objects, than Walter 
 Fetherston. Possessed of ample means, and 
 member of that secret club called " Our Society," 
 which meets at intervals and is the club of crim- 
 inologists, and pursuing the detection of crime 
 as a pastime, he had on many occasions placed 
 Scotland Yard and the Surete in Paris in pos- 
 session of information which had amazed them 
 and which had earned for him the high esteem
 
 The Mysterious Mr. Maltwood 139 
 
 of those in office as Ministers of the Interior in 
 Paris, Rome and in London. 
 
 The case of Captain Henry Bellairs he had 
 taken up merely because he recognised in it some 
 unusual circumstances, and without sparing ef- 
 fort he had investigated it rapidly and secretly 
 from every standpoint. He had satisfied him- 
 self. Certain knowledge that he had was not 
 possessed by any officer at Scotland Yard, and 
 only by reason of that secret knowledge had he 
 been able to arrive at the definite conclusion that 
 there had been a strong motive for the captain's 
 death, and that if he had been secretly poisoned 
 which seemed to be the case, in spite of the 
 analysts' evidence then he had been poisoned by 
 the velvet hand of a woman. 
 
 Walter Fetherston was ever regretting his 
 inability to put any of the confidential informa- 
 tion he acquired into his books. 
 
 " If I could only write half the truth of what 
 I know, people would declare it to be fiction," 
 he had often assured intimate friends. And those 
 friends had pondered and wondered to what he 
 referred. 
 
 He wrote of crime, weaving those wonderful 
 romances which held breathless his readers in 
 every corner of the globe, and describing crimi- 
 nals and life's undercurrents with such fidelity
 
 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 that even criminals themselves had expressed 
 wonder as to how and whence he obtained his ac- 
 curate information. 
 
 But the public were in ignorance that, in his 
 character of Mr. Maltwood, he pursued a strange 
 profession, one which was fraught with more ro- 
 mance and excitement than any other calling a 
 man could adopt. In comparison with his life 
 that of a detective was really a tame one; while 
 such success had he obtained that in a certain im- 
 portant official circle in London he was held in 
 highest esteem and frequently called into con- 
 sultation. 
 
 Walter Fetherston, the quiet, reticent novel- 
 ist, was entirely different from the gay, devil- 
 may-care Maltwood, the accomplished linguist, 
 thorough-going cosmopolitan and constant trav- 
 eller, the easy-going man of means known in so- 
 ciety in every European capital. 
 
 Because of this his few friends who were 
 aware of his dual personality were puzzled. 
 
 At the girl's side he strode on along the road 
 which still led through the wood, the road over 
 which every evening rumbled the old post-dili- 
 gence on its way through the quaint old town of 
 Etain to the railway at Spincourt. On that very 
 road a battalion of Uhlans had been annihilated
 
 The Mysterious Mr. Maltwood 141 
 
 almost to a man at the outbreak of the Great 
 War. 
 
 Every metre they trod was historic ground 
 ground which had been contested against the le- 
 gions of the Crown Prince's army. 
 
 For some time neither spoke. At last Walter 
 asked : * Your stepfather has been up to the 
 fortress with Monsieur Le Pontois, I suppose? " 
 ' Yes, once or twice," was her reply, eager 
 to change the subject. " Of course, to a soldier, 
 fortifications and suchlike things are always of 
 interest." 
 
 " I saw them walking up to the fortress to- 
 gether the other day," he remarked with a casual 
 air. 
 
 11 What? " she asked quickly. " Have you 
 been here before?" 
 
 " Once," he laughed. " I came over from 
 Commercy and spent the day in your vicinity in 
 the hope that I might perhaps meet you alone 
 accidentally." 
 
 He did not tell her that he had watched her 
 shopping with Madame Le Pontois, or that he 
 had spent several days at a small auberge at the 
 tiny village of Marcheville-en-Woevre, only two 
 miles distant. 
 
 " I had no idea of that," she replied, her face 
 flushing slightly.
 
 142 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 " When do you return to London? " he asked. 
 
 " I hardly know. Certainly not before next 
 Thursday, as we have amateur theatricals at Gen- 
 eral Molon's. I am playing the part of Miss 
 Smith, the English governess, in Darbour's com- 
 edy, Le Pyree" 
 
 " And then you return to London, eh? " 
 
 " I hardly know. Yesterday I had a letter 
 from Mrs. Caldwell saying that she contemplated 
 going to Italy this winter; therefore, perhaps 
 mother will let me go. I wrote to her this morn- 
 ing. The proposal is to spend part of the time 
 in Italy, and then cross from Naples to Egypt. 
 I love Egypt. We were there some winters ago, 
 at the Winter Palace at Luxor." 
 
 'Your father and mother will remain at 
 home, I suppose? " 
 
 " Mother hates travelling nowadays. She 
 says she had quite sufficient of living abroad in 
 my father's lifetime. We were practically exiled 
 for years, you know. I was born in Lima, and I 
 never saw England till I was eleven. The Diplo- 
 matic Service takes one so out of touch with 
 home." 
 
 " But Sir Hugh will go abroad this winter, 
 eh?" 
 
 " I have not heard him speak of it. I believe 
 he's too busy at the War Office just now. They
 
 The Mysterious Mr. Maltwood 143 
 
 have some more ' reforms ' in progress, I hear," 
 and she smiled. 
 
 He was looking straight into the girl's hand- 
 some face, his heart torn between love and sus- 
 picion. 
 
 Those days at Biarritz recurred to him ; how 
 he would watch for her and go and meet her 
 down towards Grande Plage, till, by degrees, it 
 had become to both the most natural thing in the 
 world. On those rare evenings when they did 
 not meet the girl was conscious of a little feeling 
 of disappointment which she was too shy to own, 
 even to her own heart. 
 
 Walter Fetherston owned it freely enough. 
 In that bright springtime the day was incom- 
 plete unless he saw her; and he knew that, even 
 now, every hour was making her grow dearer to 
 him. From that chance meeting at the hotel their 
 friendship had grown, and had ripened into some- 
 thing warmer, dearer a secret held closely in 
 each heart, but none the less sweet for that. 
 
 After leaving Biarritz the man had torn him- 
 self from her why, he hardly knew. Only he 
 felt upon him some fatal fascination, strong and 
 irresistible. It was the first time in his life that 
 he had been what is vulgarly known as " over 
 head and ears in love." 
 
 He returned to England, and then, a month
 
 ii44 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 later, his investigation of Henry Bellairs' death, 
 for the purpose of obtaining a plot for a new 
 novel he contemplated, revealed to him a stagger- 
 ing and astounding truth. 
 
 Even then, in face of that secret knowledge 
 he had gained, he had been powerless, and he had 
 gone up to Monifieth deliberately again to meet 
 her to be drawn again beneath the spell of 
 those wonderful eyes. 
 
 There was love in the man's heart. But some- 
 times it embittered him. It did at that moment, 
 as they strolled still onward over that carpet of 
 moss and fallen leaves. He had loved her, as he 
 believed her to be a woman with heart and soul 
 too pure to harbour an evil thought. But her 
 story of the death of poor Bellairs, the man who 
 had loved her, had convinced him that his suspi- 
 cions were, alasl only too well grounded.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 WHAT CONFESSION WOULD MEAN 
 
 A SILENCE had fallen between the pair. Again 
 Walter Fetherston glanced at her. 
 
 She was an outdoor girl to the tips of her 
 fingers. At shooting parties she went out with 
 the guns, not merely contenting herself, as did 
 the other girls, to motor down with the luncheon 
 for the men. She never got dishevelled or un- 
 tidy, and her trim tweed skirt and serviceable 
 boots never made her look unwomanly. She was 
 her dainty self out in the country with the men, 
 just as in the pretty drawing-room at Hill Street, 
 while her merry laugh evoked more smiles and 
 witticisms than the more studied attempts at wit 
 of the others. / 
 
 At that moment she had noticed the change 
 in the man she had so gradually grown to love, 
 and her heart was beating in wild tumult. 
 
 He, on his part, was hating himself for so 
 foolishly allowing her to steal into his heart. 
 She had lied to him there, just as she had lied to 
 him at Biarritz. And yet he had been a fool, and 
 
 145
 
 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 had allowed himself to be drawn back to her side. 
 
 Why? he asked himself. Why? There was 
 a reason, a strong reason. He loved her, and 
 the reason he was at that moment at her side was 
 to save her, to rescue her from a fate which he 
 knew must sooner or later befall her. 
 
 She made some remark, but he only replied 
 mechanically. His countenance had, she saw, 
 changed and become paler. His lips were pressed 
 together, and, taking a cigar from his case, he 
 asked her permission to smoke, and viciously bit 
 off its end. Something had annoyed him. Was 
 it possible that he held any suspicion of the 
 ghastly truth? 
 
 The real fact, however, was that he was calm- 
 ly and deliberately contemplating tearing her 
 from his heart for ever as an object of suspicion 
 and worthless. He, who had never yet fallen be- 
 neath a woman's thraldom, resolved not to enter 
 blindly the net she had spread for him. His 
 thoughts were hard and bitter the thoughts of 
 a man who had loved passionately, but whose idol 
 had suddenly been shattered. 
 
 Again she spoke, remarking that it was time 
 she turned back, for already they were at the 
 opposite end of the wood, with a beautiful pano- 
 rama of valley and winding river spread before 
 them. But he only answered a trifle abruptly,
 
 What Confession would Mean 147 
 
 and, acting upon her suggestion, turned and re- 
 traced his steps in silence. 
 
 At last, as though suddenly rousing himself, 
 he turned to her, and said in an apologetic tone: 
 " I fear, Enid, I've treated you rather well, 
 rather uncouthly. I apologise. I was thinking 
 of something else a somewhat serious matter." 
 
 " I knew you were," she laughed, affecting 
 to treat the matter lightly. " You scarcely re- 
 plied to me." 
 
 " Forgive me, won't you?" he asked, smiling 
 again in his old way. 
 
 " Of course," she said. " But but is the 
 matter very serious? Does it concern yourself? " 
 
 ' Yes, Enid, it does," he answered. 
 
 And still she walked on, her eyes cast down, 
 much puzzled. 
 
 Two woodmen passed on their way home from 
 work, and raised their caps politely, while Walter 
 acknowledged their salutation in French. 
 
 " I shall probably leave here to-morrow," her 
 companion said as they walked back to the high 
 road. " I am not yet certain until I receive my 
 letters to-night." 
 
 ' You are now going back to your village inn, 
 I suppose," she laughed cheerfully. 
 
 ' Yes," he said. " My host is an interesting 
 old countryman, and has told me quite a lot about
 
 148 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 the war. He was wounded when the Germans 
 shelled Verdun. He has told me that he knows 
 Paul Le Pontois, for his son Jean is his serv> 
 ant." 
 
 " Why, Mr. Fetherston, you are really ubiqui- 
 tous," cried the girl in confusion. ' Why have 
 you been watching us like this ? " 
 
 " Merely because I wished to see you, as IVe 
 already explained," was his reply. " I wanted 
 to ask you those questions which I have put to 
 you this afternoon." 
 
 " About poor Harry? " she remarked in a 
 hoarse, low voice. " But you begged me to re- 
 ply to you in my own interests why? " 
 
 " Because I wished to know the real truth." 
 
 " Well, I've told you the truth," she said with 
 just the slightest tinge of defiance in her voice. 
 
 For a moment he did not speak. He had 
 halted ; his grave eyes were fixed upon her. 
 
 " Have you told me the whole truth all that 
 you know, Enid? '* he asked very quietly a mo- 
 ment later. 
 
 ' What more should I know? " she protested 
 after a second's hesitation. 
 
 " How can I tell?" he asked quickly. " I 
 only ask you to place me in possession of all the 
 facts within your knowledge." 
 
 " Why do you ask me this ? " she cried. " Is it
 
 What Confession would Mean 149 
 
 out of mere idle curiosity? Or is it because be- 
 cause, knowing that Harry loved me, you wish to 
 cause me pain by recalling those tragic circum- 
 stances? " 
 
 " Neither," was his quiet answer in a low, 
 sympathetic voice. " I am your friend, Enid. 
 And if you will allow me, I will assist you." 
 
 She held her breath. He spoke as though 
 he were aware of the truth that she had not told 
 him everything that she was still concealing cer- 
 tain important and material facts. 
 
 " I I know you are my friend," she faltered. 
 " I have felt that all along, ever since our first 
 meeting. But but forgive me, I beg of you. 
 The very remembrance of that night of the sec- 
 ond of September is, to me, horrible horrible." 
 
 To him those very words of hers increased his 
 suspicion. Was it any wonder that she was hor- 
 rified when she recalled that gruesome episode of 
 the death of a brave and honest man? Her per- 
 sonal fascination had overwhelmed Harry Bel- 
 lairs, just as it had overwhelmed himself. The 
 devil sends some women into the hearts of up- 
 right men to rend and destroy them. 
 
 Upon her cheeks had spread a deadly pallor, 
 while in the centre of each showed a scarlet spot. 
 Her heart was torn by a thousand emotions, for 
 the image of that man whom she had seen lying
 
 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 cold and dead in his room had arisen before her 
 vision, blotting out everything. The hideous re- 
 membrance of that fateful night took possession 
 of her soul. 
 
 In silence they walked on for a considerable 
 time. Now and then a rabbit scuttled from their 
 path into the undergrowth or the alarm-cry of 
 a bird broke the evening stillness, until at last 
 they came forth into the wide highway, their faces 
 set towards the autumn sunset. 
 
 Suddenly the man spoke. 
 
 " Have you heard of the doctor since you left 
 London? " he asked. 
 
 She held her breath only for a single second. 
 But her hesitation was sufficient to show him that 
 she intended to conceal the truth. 
 
 " No," was her reply. " He has not written 
 to me." 
 
 Again he was silent. There was a reason a 
 strong reason why Weirmarsh should not write 
 to her, he knew. But he had, by his question, 
 afforded her an opportunity of telling him the 
 truth the truth that the mysterious George 
 Weirmarsh was there, in that vicinity. That 
 Enid was aware of that fact was certain to him. 
 
 " I wish," she said at last, " I wish you would 
 call at the chateau and allow me to introduce you
 
 u What Confession would Mean 
 
 to Paul and his wife. They would be charmed 
 to make your acquaintance." 
 
 " Thank you," he replied a trifle coldly; " I'd 
 rather not know them in the present circum- 
 stances." 
 
 * Why, how strange you are ! " the girl ex- 
 claimed, looking up into his face, so dark and 
 serious. " I don't see why you should entertain 
 such an aversion to being introduced to Paul. 
 He's quite a dear fellow." 
 
 " Perhaps it is a foolish reluctance on my 
 part," he laughed uneasily. " But, somehow, I 
 feel that to remain away from the chateau is best. 
 Remember, your stepfather and your mother are 
 in ignorance of well, of the fact that we regard 
 each other as as more than close friends. For 
 the present it is surely best that I should not visit 
 your relations. Relations are often very prompt 
 to divine the real position of affairs. Parents 
 may be blind," he laughed, " but brothers-in-law 
 
 never." 
 
 ' You are always so dreadfully philosophi- 
 cal! " the girl cried, glad that at last that painful 
 topic of conversation had been changed. " Paul 
 Le Pontois wouldn't eat you! " 
 
 " I don't suppose any Frenchman is given to 
 cannibalistic diet," he answered, smiling. " But
 
 152 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 the fact is, I have my reasons for not being intro- 
 duced to the Le Pontois family just now." 
 
 The girl looked at him sharply, surprised at 
 the tone of his response. She tried to divine its 
 meaning. But his countenance still bore that 
 sphinx-like expression which so often caused his 
 friends to entertain vague suspicions. 
 
 Few men could read character better than 
 Walter Fetherston. To him the minds of most 
 men and women he met were as an open book. 
 To a marvellous degree had he cultivated his 
 power of reading the inner working of the mind 
 by the expression in the eyes and on the faces of 
 even those hard-headed diplomats and men ofi 
 business whom, in his second character of Mr. 
 Maltwood, he so frequently met. Few men or 
 women could tell him a deliberate lie without its 
 instant detection. Most shrewd men possess that 
 power to a greater or less degree a power that 
 can be developed by painstaking application and 
 practice. 
 
 Enid asked her companion when they were to 
 meet again. 
 
 " At least let me see you before you go from 
 here," she said. " I know what a rapid traveller 
 you always are." 
 
 ' Yes," he sighed. "I'm often compelled to 
 make quick journeys from one part of the Conti-
 
 What Confession would Mean 153 
 
 nent to the other. I am a constant traveller 
 too constant, perhaps, for I've nowadays grown 
 very world-weary and restless." 
 
 * Well," she exclaimed, " if you will not 
 come to the chateau, where shall we meet? " 
 
 " I will write to you," he replied. " At this 
 moment my movements are most uncertain they 
 depend almost entirely upon the movements of 
 others. At any moment I may be called away. 
 But a letter to Holies Street will always find me, 
 you know." 
 
 He seemed unusually serious and strangely 
 preoccupied, she thought. She noticed, too, that 
 he had flung away his half -consumed cigar in im- 
 patience, and that he had rubbed his chin with 
 his left hand, a habit of his when puzzled. 
 
 At the crossroads where the leafless poplars 
 ran in straight lines towards the village of Fres- 
 nes, a big red motor-car passed them at a tear- 
 ing pace, and in it Enid recognised General 
 Molon. 
 
 Fetherston, although an ardent motorist him- 
 self, cursed the driver under his breath for be- 
 spattering them with mud. Then, with a word 
 of apology to his charming companion, he held 
 her gloved hand for a moment in his. 
 
 Their parting was not prolonged. The man's 
 lips were thin and hard, for his resolve was firm.
 
 154 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 This girl whom he had grown to love who 
 was the very sunshine of his strange, adventur- 
 ous life was, he had at last realised, unworthy. 
 If he was to live, if the future was to have hope 
 and joy for him, he must tear her out of his life. 
 
 Therefore he bade her adieu, refusing to give 
 her any tryst for the morrow. 
 
 " It is all so uncertain," he repeated. ' You 
 will write to me in London if you do not hear 
 from me, won't you? " 
 
 She nodded, but scarce a word, save a mur- 
 mured farewell, escaped her dry lips. 
 
 He was changed, sadly changed, she knew. 
 She turned from him with overflowing heart, sti- 
 fling her tears, but with a veritable volcano of 
 emotion within her young breast. 
 
 He had changed changed entirely and ut- 
 terly in that brief hour and a half they had 
 walked together. What had she said? What 
 had she done? she asked herself. 
 
 Forward she went blindly with the blood-red 
 light of the glorious sunset full in her hard-set 
 face, the great fortress-crowned hills looming up 
 before her, a barrier between herself and the be- 
 yond! They looked grey, dark, mysterious as 
 her own future. 
 
 She glanced back, but he had turned upon
 
 W v >t Confession would Mean 155 
 
 his heel, and she now saw his retreating figure 
 swinging along the straight, broad highway. 
 
 Why had he treated her thus? Was it pos- 
 sible, she reflected, that he had actually become 
 aware of the ghastly truth? Had he divined it? 
 
 " If he has," she cried aloud in an agony of 
 soul, " then no wonder no wonder, indeed, that 
 he has cast me from his life as a criminal as 
 a woman to be avoided as the plague that he has 
 said good-bye to me for ever! " 
 
 Her lips trembled, and the corners of her 
 pretty mouth hardened. 
 
 She turned again to watch the man's disap- 
 pearing figure. 
 
 " I would go back," she cried in despair, 
 " back to him, and beg his forgiveness upon my 
 knees. I love him love him better than my life ! 
 Yet to crave forgiveness would be to confess to 
 tell all I know the whole awful truth! And I 
 can't do that no, never! God help me! I I 
 -I can't do that!" 
 
 And bursting into a flood of hot tears, she 
 stood rigid, her small hands clenched, still watch- 
 ing him until he disappeared from her sight 
 around the bend of the road. 
 
 " No," she murmured in a low, hoarse voice, 
 still speaking to herself, " confession would mean 
 death. Rather than admit the truth I would take
 
 156 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 my own life. I would kill myself, yes, face death 
 freely and willingly, rather than he the man I 
 love so well should learn Sir Hugh's disgrace- 
 ful secret."
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 THREE GENTLEMEN FROM PARIS 
 
 GASTON D ARBOUR'S comedy, Le Pyree, had been 
 played to a large audience assembled in one of 
 the bigger rooms of the long whitewashed artil- 
 lery barracks outside Ronvaux, where General 
 Molon had his official residence. 
 
 The humorous piece had been applauded to 
 the echo the audience consisting for the most 
 part of military officers in uniform and their 
 wives and daughters, with a sprinkling of the 
 better-class civilians from the various chateaux 
 in the neighbourhood, together with two or three 
 aristocratic parties from Longuyon, Spincourt, 
 and other places. 
 
 The honours of the evening had fallen to the 
 young English girl who had played the amusing 
 part of the demure governess, Miss Smith pro- 
 nounced by the others " Mees Smeeth." Enid 
 was passionately fond of dramatic art, and be- 
 longed to an amateur club in London. Among 
 those present were the author of the piece him- 
 self, a dark young man with smooth hair parted 
 
 157
 
 158 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 in the centre and wearing an exaggerated black 
 cravat. 
 
 When the curtain fell the audience rose to 
 chatter and comment, and were a long time before 
 they dispersed. Paul Le Pontois waited for 
 Enid, Sir Hugh accompanying Blanche and little 
 Ninette home in the hired brougham. As the 
 party had a long distance to go, some twelve kilo- 
 metres, General Molon had lent Le Pontois his 
 motor-car, which now stood awaiting him with 
 glaring headlights in the barrack-square. 
 
 As the hall emptied Paul glanced around him 
 while awaiting ,Enid. On the walls the French 
 tricolour was everywhere displayed, the revered 
 drapeau under which he had so gallantly and 
 nobly served against the Huns. 
 
 He presented a spruce appearance in his 
 smart, well-cut evening coat, with the red button 
 of the Legion d'Honneur in his lapel, and to the 
 ladies who wished him " bon soir " as they filed 
 out he drew his heels together and bowed gal- 
 lantly. 
 
 Outside, the night was cloudy and overcast. 
 In the long rows of the barrack windows lights 
 shone, and somewhere sounded a bugle, while in 
 the shadows could be heard the measured tramp 
 of sentries, the clank of spurs, or the click of 
 rifles as they saluted their officers passing out.
 
 Three Gentlemen from Paris 
 
 The whole atmosphere was a military one, for, 
 indeed, the little town of Ronvaux is, even in 
 these peace days, scarcely more than a huge camp. 
 
 For a few minutes Le Pontois stood chatting 
 to a group of men at the door. They had invited 
 him to come across to their quarters, but he had 
 explained that he was awaiting mademoiselle. So 
 they raised their eyebrows, smiled mischievously, 
 and bade him " bon soir." 
 
 Soldiers were already stacking up the chairs 
 ready for the clearance of the gymnasium for the 
 morrow. Others were coming to water and sweep 
 out the place. Therefore Le Pontois remained 
 outside in the square, waiting in patience. 
 
 He was reflecting. That evening, as he had 
 sat with his wife watching the play, he had been 
 seized by a curious feeling for which he entirely 
 failed to account. Behind him there had sat a 
 man and a woman, French without a doubt, but 
 entire strangers. They must, of course, have 
 known one or other of the officers in order to ob- 
 tain an admission ticket. Nevertheless, they had 
 spoken to no one, and on the fall of the curtain 
 had entered a brougham in waiting and driven 
 off. 
 
 Paul had made no comment. By a sudden 
 chance he had, during the entr'acte, risen and 
 gazed around, when the face of the stranger had
 
 160 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 caught his eyes a face which he felt was curi- 
 ously familiar, yet he could not place it. The 
 middle-aged man was dressed with quiet elegance, 
 clean-shaven and keen-faced, apparently a pros- 
 perous civilian, while the lady with him was of 
 about the same age and apparently his wife. She 
 was dressed in a high-necked dress of black lace, 
 and wore in her corsage a large circular ornament 
 of diamonds and emeralds. 
 
 Twice had Le Pontois taken furtive glances 
 at the stranger whose lined brow was so extraor- 
 dinarily familiar. It was the face of a deep 
 thinker, a man who had, perhaps, passed through 
 much trouble. Was it possible, he wondered, that 
 he had seen that striking face in some photo- 
 graph, or perhaps in some illustrated paper? He 
 had racked his brain through the whole perform- 
 ance, but could not decide in what circumstances 
 they had previously met. 
 
 From time to time the stranger had joined 
 with the audience in their hearty laughter, or ap- 
 plauded as vociferously as the others, his com- 
 panion being equally amused at the quaint say- 
 ings of the demure " Mees Smeeth." 
 
 And even as he stood in the shadows near the 
 general's car awaiting Enid he was still wonder- 
 ing who the pair might be. 
 
 At the fall of the curtain he had made several
 
 Three Gentlemen from Paris 161 
 
 inquiries of the officers, but nobody could give 
 him any information. They were complete stran- 
 gers that was all. Even a search among the 
 cards of invitation had revealed nothing. 
 
 So Paul Le Pontois remained mystified. 
 
 Enid came at last, flushed with success and 
 apologetic because she had kept him waiting. 
 But he only congratulated her, and assisted her 
 into the car. It was a big open one, therefore 
 she wore a thick motor coat and veil as protection 
 against the chill autumn night. 
 
 A moment later the soldier-chauffeur mount- 
 ed to his seat, and slowly they moved across the 
 great square and out by the gates, where the sen- 
 tries saluted. Then, turning to the right, they 
 were quickly tearing along the highway in the 
 darkness. 
 
 Soon they overtook several closed carriages 
 of the home-going visitors, and, ascending the 
 hill, turned from the main road down into a by- 
 road leading through a wooded valley, which was 
 a short cut to the chateau. 
 
 Part of their way led through the great Foret 
 d'Amblonville, and though Enid's gay chatter 
 was mostly of the play, the defects in the acting 
 and the several amusing contretemps which had 
 occurred behind the scenes, her companion's
 
 162 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 thoughts were constantly of that stranger whose 
 brow was so deeply lined with care. 
 
 They expected to overtake Sir Hugh in the 
 brougham, but so long had Enid been changing 
 her gown that they saw nothing of the others. 
 
 Just, however, as they were within a hundred 
 yards or so of the gates which gave entrance to 
 the chateau, and were slowing down in order to 
 swing into the drive, a man emerged from the 
 darkness, calling upon the driver to stop, and, 
 placing himself before the car, held up his hands. 
 
 Next instant the figure of a second individual 
 appeared. Enid uttered a cry of alarm, but the 
 second man, who wore a hard felt hat and dark 
 overcoat, reassured her by saying in French : 
 
 " Pray do not distress yourself, mademoiselle. 
 There is no cause for alarm. My friend and I 
 merely wish to speak for a moment with Mon- 
 sieur Le Pontois before he enters his house. For 
 that reason we have presumed to stop your car." 
 
 " But who are you ? " demanded Le Pontois 
 angrily. ' Who are you that you should hold us 
 up like this?" 
 
 " Perhaps, m'sieur, it would be better if you 
 descended and escorted mademoiselle as far as 
 your gates. We wish to speak to you for a mo- 
 ment upon a little matter which is both urgent 
 and private."
 
 Three Gentlemen from Paris 163 
 
 '* Well, cannot you speak here, now, and let 
 us proceed? " 
 
 " Not before mademoiselle," replied the man. 
 " It is a confidential matter." 
 
 Paul, much puzzled at the curious demeanour 
 of the strangers, reluctantly handed Enid out, 
 and walked with her as far as his own gate, tell- 
 ing her to assure Blanche that he would return 
 in a few moments, when he had heard what the 
 men wanted. 
 
 ' Very well," she laughed. " I'll say nothing. 
 You can tell her all when you come in." 
 
 The girl passed through the gates and up the 
 gravelled drive to the house, when Le Pontois, 
 turning upon his heel to return to the car, was 
 met by the two men, who, he found, had walked 
 closely behind him. 
 
 " You are Paul Le Pontois? " inquired the 
 elder of the pair brusquely. 
 
 " Of course ! Why do you ask that? " 
 
 " Because it is necessary," was his business- 
 like reply. Then he added : <;< I regret, m'sieur, 
 that you must consider yourself under arrest by 
 order of his Excellency the Minister of Justice." 
 
 " Arrest! " gasped the unhappy man. " Are 
 rou mad, messieurs? " 
 
 " No," replied the man who had spoken.
 
 164 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 " We have merely our duty to perform, and have 
 travelled from Paris to execute it." 
 
 " With what offence am I charged? " Le Pon- 
 tais demanded. 
 
 " Of that we have no knowledge. As agents 
 of secret police, we are sent here to convey you 
 for interrogation." 
 
 The man under arrest stood dumbfounded. 
 
 " But at least you will allow me to say fare- 
 well to my wife and child to make excuse to 
 them for my absence? " he urged. 
 
 " I regret that is quite impossible, m'sieur. 
 Our orders are to make the arrest and to afford 
 you no opportunity to communicate with any- 
 
 one." 
 
 " But this is cruel, inhuman! His Excellency 
 never meant that, I am quite sure especially 
 when I am innocent of any crime, as far as I am 
 aware." 
 
 " We can only obey our orders, m'sieur," re- 
 plied the man in the dark overcoat. 
 
 ' Then may I not write a line to my wife, just 
 one word of excuse? " he pleaded. 
 
 The two police agents consulted. 
 
 ' Well," replied the elder of the pair, who 
 was the one in authority, " if you wish to scrib- 
 ble a note, here are paper and pencil." And he
 
 Three Gentlemen from Paris 165 
 
 tore a leaf from his notebook and handed it to 
 the prisoner. 
 
 By the light of the head-lamps of the car Paul 
 scribbled a few hurried words to Blanche: " I 
 am detained on important business," he wrote. 
 " I will return to-morrow. My love to you both. 
 PAUL." 
 
 The detective read it, folded it carefully, and 
 handed it to his assistant, telling him to go up 
 to the chateau and deliver it at the servants' en- 
 trance. 
 
 When he had gone the detective, turning 
 to the chauffeur, said: " I shall require you to 
 take us to Verdun." 
 
 ' This is not my car, m'sieur," replied Paul. 
 "It belongs to General Molon." 
 
 ' That does not matter. I will telephone to 
 him an explanation as soon as we arrive in Ver- 
 dun. We may as well enter the car as stand 
 here." 
 
 Paul Le Pontois was about to protest, but 
 what could he say? The Minister in Paris had 
 apparently committed some grave error in thus 
 ordering his arrest. No doubt there would be 
 confusion, apologies and laughter. So, with a 
 light heart at the knowledge that he had com- 
 mitted no offence, he got into the car, and allowed 
 the polite police agent to seat himself beside him.
 
 1 66 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 The only chagrin he felt was that the chauf- 
 feur had overheard all the conversation. And to 
 him he said: " Remember, Gallet, of this affair 
 you know nothing." 
 
 " I understand perfectly, m'sieur," was the 
 wondering soldier's reply. 
 
 Then they sat in silence in the darkness un- 
 til the hurrying police agent returned, after which 
 the car sped straight past the chateau on the high 
 road which led through the deep valley on to the 
 fortress town of Verdun. 
 
 As they passed the chateau Paul Le Pontois 
 caught a glimpse of its lighted windows and sat 
 wondering what Blanche would imagine. He 
 pictured the pleasant supper party and the sur- 
 prise that would be expressed at his absence. 
 
 How amusing! What incongruity! He was 
 under arrest ! 
 
 The car rushed on beneath the precipitous 
 hill crowned by the great fortress of Haudio- 
 mont, through the narrow gorge the road to 
 Paris. 
 
 All three men, seated abreast, were silent 
 until, at last, the elder of the two police agents 
 bent and glanced at the clock on the dashboard, 
 visible by the tiny glow-lamp. 
 
 " Half past twelve," he remarked. ' The. 
 express leaves Verdun at two twenty-eight."
 
 Three Gentlemen from Paris 167 
 
 "For where?" asked Paul. 
 
 " For Paris." 
 
 " Paris ! " he cried. " Are you taking me to 
 Paris?" 
 
 ' Those are our orders," was the detective's 
 quiet response.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE ORDERS OF HIS EXCELLENCY 
 
 AGAIN Paul sat back without a word. Well, he 
 would hear the extraordinary charge against 
 him, whatever it might be. And, without speak- 
 ing, they travelled on and on, until they at last 
 entered the Porte St. Paul at Verdun, passed 
 up the Avenue de la Gare, skirting the Palais 
 de Justice into the station yard. 
 
 As Paul descended they were met by a third 
 stranger who strolled forward a man in a 
 heavy travelling coat and a soft Homburg hat. 
 
 It was the man who had sat beliind him 
 earlier in the evening the man with the deep 
 lines upon his care-worn brow, who had laughed 
 so heartily and who a moment later introduced 
 himself as Jules Pierrepont, special commissaire 
 of the Paris Surete. 
 
 ' We have met before? " remarked Paul 
 abruptly. 
 
 ' Yes, Monsieur Le Pontois," replied the 
 man with a grim smile. " On several occasions 
 
 168
 
 The Orders of His Excellency 169 
 
 lately. It has been my duty to keep observa- 
 tion upon your movements acting upon orders 
 from Monsieur the Prefect of Police." 
 
 And together they entered the dark, deserted 
 station to await the night express for Paris. 
 
 Suddenly Paul turned back, saying to the 
 chauffeur in a low, hard voice: " Gallet, to-mor- 
 row go and tell madame my wife that I am 
 unexpectedly called to the capital. Tell her 
 tell her that I will write to her. But, at all 
 hazards, do not let her know the truth that I am 
 under arrest," he added hoarsely. 
 
 !< That is understood, monsieur," replied the 
 man, saluting. " Neither madame nor anyone 
 else shall know why you have left for Paris." 
 
 " I rely upon you," were Paul's parting 
 words, and, turning upon his heel, he accom- 
 panied the three men who were in waiting. 
 
 Half an hour later he sat in a second-class 
 compartment of the Paris rapide with the three 
 keen-eyed men who had so swiftly effected his 
 arrest. 
 
 It was apparent to him now that the reason 
 he had recognised Pierrepont was because that 
 man had maintained vigilant, yet unobtrusive, 
 observation upon him during several of the pre- 
 ceding days, keeping near him in all sorts of 
 ingenious guises and making inquiries concern-
 
 i7 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 ing him inquiries instituted for some un- 
 explained cause by the Paris police. 
 
 Bitterly he smiled to himself as he gazed 
 upon the faces of his three companions, hard 
 and deep-shadowed beneath the uncertain light. 
 Presently he made some inquiry of Jules Pierre- 
 pont, who had now assumed commandership of 
 the party, as to the reason of his arrest. 
 
 " I regret, Monsieur Le Pontois," replied 
 the quiet, affable man, " his Excellency does 
 not give us reasons. We obey orders that is 
 all." 
 
 "But surely there is still, even after the war, 
 justice in France! " cried Paul in dismay. 
 ' There must be some good reason. One can- 
 not be thus arrested as a criminal without some 
 charge against him in my case a false one ! " 
 
 All three men had heard prisoners declare 
 their innocence many times before, therefore 
 they merely nodded assent it was their usual 
 habit. 
 
 : ' There is, of course, some charge," re- 
 marked Pierrepont. " But no doubt monsieur 
 has a perfect answer to it." 
 
 ' When I know what it is," replied Paul be- 
 tween his teeth, " then I shall meet it bravely, 
 and demand compensation for this outrageous 
 arrest! "
 
 The Orders of His Excellency 171 
 
 He held his breath, for, with a sinking heart, 
 he realised for the first time the very fact of a 
 serious allegation being made against him by 
 some enemy. If mud is thrown some of it al- 
 ways sticks. What had all his enthusiasm in 
 life profited him? Nothing. He bit his lip when 
 he reflected. 
 
 ' You have some idea of what is alleged 
 against me, messieurs," the unhappy man ex- 
 claimed presently, as the roaring train emerged 
 from a long tunnel. " I see it in your faces. 
 Indeed, you would not have taken the precau- 
 tion, which you did at the moment of my arrest, 
 of searching me to find firearms. You suspected 
 that I might make an attempt to take my life." 
 
 " Merely our habit," replied Pierrepont with 
 a slight smile. 
 
 ' The charge is a grave one will you not 
 admit that? " 
 
 " Probably it is or we should not all three 
 have been sent to bring you to Paris," remarked 
 one of the trio. 
 
 * You have had access to my dossier I feel 
 sure you have, monsieur," Paul said, addressing 
 Pierrepont. 
 
 " Ah ! you are in error. Monsieur le Ministre 
 does not afford me that privilege. I am but the 
 servant of the Surete, and no one regrets more
 
 i7 2 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 than myself the painful duty I have been com- 
 pelled to perform to-night. I assure you, Mon- 
 sieur Le Pontois, that I entertain much regret 
 that I have been compelled to drag you away 
 from your home and family thus, to Paris." 
 
 " No apology is needed, mon ami," Paul ex- 
 claimed quickly, well aware that the detective 
 was merely obeying instructions. " I under- 
 stand your position perfectly." Then, glancing 
 round at his companions, he added: "You may 
 sleep in peace, messieurs. I give you my word 
 of honour that I will not attempt to escape. 
 Why, indeed, should I? I have committed no 
 wrong! " 
 
 One of the men had pulled out a well-worn 
 notebook and was with difficulty writing down 
 the prisoner's words to be put in evidence 
 against him. Le Pontois realised that ; therefore 
 his mouth closed with a snap, and, leaning back 
 in the centre of the carriage, he closed his eyes, 
 not to sleep, but to think. 
 
 Before leaving Verdun he had seen Pierre- 
 pont enter the telegraph bureau to dispatch a 
 message to the Surete, without a doubt. They 
 already knew in Paris that he was under arrest, 
 but at his home they were, happily, still in igno- 
 rance. Poor Blanche was asleep, no doubt, by 
 that time, he thought, calm in the belief that he
 
 The Orders of His Excellency 173 
 
 had been delayed and would be home in the early 
 hours. 
 
 The fact that he was actually under arrest he 
 regarded with more humour than seriousness, 
 feeling that in the morning explanations would 
 be made and the blunder rectified. 
 
 No more honourable or upright man was 
 there in France than Paul Le Pontois, and this 
 order from the Surete had held him utterly 
 speechless and astounded. So he sat there hour 
 after hour as the rapide roared westward, until 
 it halted at the great echoing station of Chalons, 
 where all four entered the buffet and hastily 
 swallowed their cafe-au-lait. 
 
 Afterwards they resumed their seats, and 
 the train, with its two long, dusty wagons-lit, 
 moved onward again, with Paris for its goal. 
 
 The prisoner said little. He sat calmly re- 
 flecting, wondering and wondering what possi- 
 ble charge could be made against him. He had 
 enemies, as eveiy man had, he knew, but he was 
 not aware of anyone who could make an allega- 
 tion of a character sufficiently grave to warrant 
 his arrest. 
 
 Why had it been forbidden that he should 
 wish Blanche farewell? There was some reason 
 for that! He inquired of Pierrepont, who had 
 treated him with such consideration and even
 
 174 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 respect, but the agent of secret police only re- 
 plied that in making an arrest of that character 
 they made it a rule never to allow a prisoner 
 to communicate with his family. 
 
 " There are several reasons for it," he ex- 
 plained. " One is that very often the prisoner 
 will make a statement to his wife which he will 
 afterwards greatly regret. Again, prisoners 
 have been known to whisper to their wives secret 
 instructions, to order the destruction of papers 
 before we can make a domiciliary visit, or 
 
 "But you surely will not make a domiciliary 
 visit to my house?" cried Paul, interrupting. 
 
 The men exchanged glances. 
 
 " At present we cannot tell," Pierrepont re- 
 plied. " It depends upon what instructions we 
 receive." 
 
 " Do you usually make searches? " asked the 
 prisoner, with visions of his own home being 
 desecrated and ransacked. 
 
 ' Yes, we generally do," the commissaire of 
 police admitted. " As I have explained, it is for 
 that reason we do not allow a prisoner's wife to 
 know that he is under arrest." 
 
 "But such an action is abominable!" cried 
 Le Pontois angrily. ' That my house should 
 be turned upside down and searched as though 
 [ were a common thief, a forger, or a coiner is
 
 The Orders of His Excellency 175 
 
 beyond toleration. I shall demand full inquiry. 
 My friend Carlier shall put an interpellation in 
 the Chamber!" 
 
 " Monsieur le Ministre acts upon his own 
 discretion," the detective replied coldly. 
 
 " And by so doing sometimes ruins the pros- 
 pects and the lives of some of our best men," 
 blurted forth the angry prisoner. It was upon 
 the tip of his tongue to say much more in con- 
 demnation, but the sight of the man with the 
 notebook caused him to hesitate. 
 
 Every word he uttered now would, he knew, 
 be turned against him. He was under arrest 
 for some crime that he had not committed. 
 
 The other passengers by that night express, 
 who included a party of English tourists, little 
 dreamed as they passed up and down the corri- 
 dor that the smart, good-looking man who wore 
 the button of the Legion d'Honneur, and who 
 sat there with the three quiet, respectable-look- 
 ing men, was being conveyed to the capital un- 
 der escort a man who, by the law of France, 
 was already condemned, was guilty until he 
 could prove his own innocence ! 
 
 In the cold grey of dawn they descended at 
 last at the great bare Gare de 1'Est in Paris. 
 Paul felt tired, cramped and unshaven, but of 
 necessity entered a taxi called by one of his com-
 
 176 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 panions, and, accompanied by Pierrepont and 
 the elder of his assistants, was driven along 
 through the cheerless, deserted streets to the 
 Surete. 
 
 As he entered the side door of the ponderous 
 building the police officer on duty saluted his 
 escort. 
 
 His progress across France had been swift 
 and secret. 
 
 What, he wondered, did the future hold in 
 store for him? 
 
 His lip curled into a smile when they ushered 
 him into a bare room on the first floor. Two 
 police officers were placed outside the door, while 
 two stood within. 
 
 Then, turning to the window, which looked 
 out upon the bare trees of the Place below, he 
 laughed aloud and made some humorous remark 
 which caused the men to smile. 
 
 But, alas! he knew not the truth. Little did 
 he dream of the amazing allegation that was to 
 be made against him! little did he dream how 
 completely the enemies of his father-in-law, the 
 general, had triumphed!
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 WALTER GIVES WARNING 
 
 THE morning dawned bright and sunny a per- 
 fect autumn morning at the pretty Chateau of 
 Lerouville. 
 
 The message which Blanche had received 
 after returning had not caused her much con- 
 sternation. She supposed that Paul had been 
 suddenly called away on business. So she had 
 eaten her supper with her father and Enid and 
 retired to rest. 
 
 When, however, they sat at breakfast 
 served in the English style Sir Hugh opened a 
 letter which lay upon his plate, and at once an- 
 nounced his intention of returning to London. 
 
 " I have to see Hughes, my solicitor, over 
 Aunt Mary's affairs," he explained suddenly to 
 Blanche. " That executor ship is always an in- 
 fernal nuisance." 
 
 " But surely you can remain a day or two 
 longer, Dad?" exclaimed Madame Le Pontois. 
 ' The weather is delightful just now, and I hear 
 it is too dreadful for words in England." 
 
 177
 
 178 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 " I, too, have to be back to prepare for going 
 away with Mrs. Caldwell," Enid remarked. 
 
 " But surely these solicitors will wait? 
 There is no great urgency there can't be ! The 
 old lady died ten years ago," Blanche exclaimed 
 as she poured out coffee. 
 
 " My dear, I'm extremely sorry," said her 
 father quietly, " but I must go it is im- 
 perative." 
 
 "Not to-day?" 
 
 " I ought to go to-day," he sighed. ' In- 
 deed, I really must by the rapide I usually 
 take. Perhaps I shall alter my route this time, 
 and go from Cbnflans to Metz, and home by 
 Liege and Brussels. It is about as quick, and 
 one gets a wagon-lit from Metz. I looked up 
 the train the other day, and find it leaves Con- 
 flans at a little after six." 
 
 " Surely you will remain and say au revoir 
 to Paul? He'll be so disappointed!" she cried 
 in dismay. 
 
 " My dear, you will make excuses for us. I 
 must really go, and so must Enid. She had a 
 letter from Mrs. Caldwell urging her to get 
 back, as she wants to start abroad for the winter. 
 The bad weather in England is affecting her, it 
 seems." 
 
 And so, with much regret expressed by little
 
 Walter Gives Warning 179 
 
 Ninette and her mother, Sir Hugh Elcombe and 
 his stepdaughter went to their rooms to see 
 about their packing. 
 
 Both were puzzled. The sudden appearance, 
 of those strange men out of the darkness had 
 frightened Enid, but she had said nothing. Per- 
 haps it was upon some private matter that Paul 
 had been summoned. Therefore she had pre- 
 served silence, believing with Blanche that at 
 any moment he might return. 
 
 Back in his room, Sir Hugh closed the door, 
 and, standing in the sunshine by the window, 
 gazed across the wide valley towards the blue 
 mists beyond, deep in reflection. 
 
 !< This curious absence of Paul's forebodes 
 evil," he murmured to himself. 
 
 He had slept little that night, being filled 
 with strange apprehensions. Though he had 
 closely questioned Enid, she would not say what 
 had actually happened. Her explanation was 
 merely that Paul had been called away by a man 
 who had met him outside. 
 
 The old man sighed, biting his lip. He 
 cursed himself for his dastardly work, even 
 though he had been compelled by Weirmarsh 
 to execute it on pain of exposure and consequent 
 ruin. 
 
 Against his will, against his better nature, he
 
 180 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 had been forced to meet the mysterious doctor 
 of Pimlico in secret on that quiet, wooded by- 
 road between Marcheville and Saint- Hilaire, 
 four kilometres from the chateau, and there dis- 
 cuss with him the suggested affair of which they 
 had spoken in London. 
 
 The two men had met at sundown. 
 
 * You seem to fear exposure ! " laughed the 
 man who provided Sir Hugh with his comfort- 
 able income. " Don't be foolish there is no 
 danger. Return to England with Enid as soon 
 as you possibly can without arousing suspicion, 
 and I will call and see you at Hill Street. I 
 want to have a very serious chat with you." 
 
 Elcombe's grey, weather-worn face grew 
 hard and determined. 
 
 'Why are you here, Weirmarsh?" he de- 
 manded. " I have helped you and your infernal 
 friends in the past, but please do not count upon 
 my assistance in the future. Remember that 
 from to-day our friendship is entirely at an end." 
 
 " As you wish, of course, my dear Sir 
 Hugh," replied the other, with a nonchalant air. 
 " But if I were you I would not be in too great 
 a hurry to make such a declaration. You may 
 require a friend in the near future a friend 
 like myself."
 
 Walter Gives Warning 181 
 
 "Never, I hope never!" snapped the old 
 general. 
 
 ' Very well," replied the doctor, who, with 
 a shrug of his shoulders, wished his friend a cold 
 adieu and, turning, strode away. 
 
 As Sir Hugh stood alone by the window that 
 morning he recalled every incident of that hate- 
 ful interview, every word that had fallen from 
 the lips of the man who seemed to be as ingeni- 
 ous and resourceful as Satan himself. 
 
 His anxiety regarding Paul's sudden ab- 
 sence had caused him to invent an excuse for his 
 own hurried departure. He was not prepared 
 to remain there and witness his dear daughter's 
 grief and humiliation, so he deemed it wiser to 
 get away in safety to England, for he no longer 
 trusted Weirmarsh. Suppose the doctor revealed 
 the actual truth by means of some anonymous 
 communication ? 
 
 As he stood staring blankly across the valley 
 he heard the hum of an approaching motor-car, 
 and saw that it was General Melon's, being 
 driven by Gallet, the soldier chauffeur. 
 
 There was no passenger, but the car entered 
 the iron gates and pulled up before the door. 
 
 A few minutes later Blanche ran up the 
 stairs and, bursting into her father's room, cried : 
 " Paul has been called suddenly to Paris, Dad !
 
 i8a The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 He told Gallet to come this morning and tell me. 
 How strange that he did not come in to get even 
 a valise ! " 
 
 " Yes, dear," said her father. " Gallet is 
 downstairs, isn't he? I'll speak to him. The 
 mystery of Paul's absence increases ! " 
 
 " It does. I I can't get rid of a curious 
 feeling of apprehension that something has hap- 
 pened. What was there to prevent him from 
 coming in to wish me good-bye when he was 
 actually at the gate ? " 
 
 Sir Hugh went below and questioned the 
 chauffeur. 
 
 The story told by the man Gallet was that 
 Le Pontois had been met by two gentlemen and 
 given a message that he was required urgently 
 in Paris, and they had driven at once over to 
 Verdun, where they had just caught the train. 
 
 " Did Monsieur Le Pontois leave any other 
 message for madame ? " asked Sir Hugh in 
 French. 
 
 " No, m'sieur." 
 
 The general endeavoured by dint of per- 
 suasion to learn something more, but the man 
 was true to his promise, and would make no 
 further statement. Indeed, earlier that morn- 
 ing he had been closely questioned by the com' 
 mandant, but had been equally reticent. Le
 
 Walter Gives Warning 183 
 
 Pontois was a favourite in the neighbourhood, 
 and no man would dare to lift his voice against 
 him. 
 
 Sir Hugh returned to his room and com- 
 menced packing his suit-cases, more than ever 
 convinced that suspicion had been aroused. 
 Jean came to offer to assist, but he declared that 
 he liked to pack himself, and this occupied him 
 the greater part of the morning. 
 
 Enid was also busy with her dresses, assisted 
 by Blanche's Proven9al maid, Louise. About 
 eleven o'clock, however, Jean tapped at her door 
 and said : " A peasant f com Allamont, across 
 the valley, has brought a letter, mademoiselle. 
 He says an English gentleman gave it to him 
 to deliver to you personally. He is downstairs." 
 
 In surprise the girl hurriedly descended to 
 the servants' entrance, where she found a sturdy, 
 old, grey-bearded peasant, bearing a long, stout 
 stick. He raised his frayed cap politely and 
 asked whether she were Mademoiselle Orlebar. 
 
 Then, when she had replied in the affirma- 
 tive, he drew from the breast of his blouse a 
 crumpled letter, saying: " The Englishman who 
 has been staying at the Lion d'Or at Allamont 
 gave this to me at dawn to-day. I was to give 
 it only into mademoiselle's hands. There is no 
 reply."
 
 '184 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 Enid tore open the letter eagerly and found 
 the following words, written hurriedly in pencil 
 in Walter Fetherston's well-known scrawling 
 hand for a novelist's handwriting is never of 
 the best: 
 
 " Make excuse and induce your father to 
 leave Conflans-Jarny at once for Metz, travel- 
 ling by Belgium for London. Accompany him. 
 A serious contretemps has occurred which will, 
 affect you both if you do not leave immediately 
 on receipt of this. Heed this, I beg of you. 
 And remember, I am still your friend. 
 
 " WALTER." 
 
 For a moment she stood puzzled. " Did the 
 Englishman say there was no reply? " she asked. 
 
 ' Yes, mademoiselle. He left the Lion d'Or 
 just before eight, and drove into Conflans with 
 his luggage. The innkeeper told me that he is 
 returning suddenly to England. He received 
 several telegrams in the night, it appears." 
 
 ' You know him, then? " 
 
 " Oh yes, mademoiselle. He came there to 
 fish in the Longeau, and I have been with him 
 on several occasions." 
 
 Enid took a piece of " cent sous " from her 
 purse and gave it to the old man, then she re- 
 turned to her room and, sending Louise below
 
 Walter Gives Warning i8<j 
 
 for something, burned Walter's letter in the 
 grate. 
 
 Afterwards she went to her stepfather and 
 suggested that perhaps they might leave Con- 
 flans earlier than he had resolved. 
 
 " I hear there is a train at three-five. If we 
 went by that," she said, " we could cross from 
 Ostend instead of by Antwerp, and thus be in 
 London a day earlier." 
 
 " Are you so anxious to get away from here, 
 Enid? " he asked, looking straight into her face. 
 
 ' Well, yes. Mother, in her letter yesterday, 
 urged me to come home, "as she does not wish 
 me to travel out alone to join Mrs. Caldwell. 
 She's afraid she will leave London without me if 
 I don't get home at once. Besides, I've got a 
 lot of shopping to do before I can start. Do let 
 us get away by the earlier train. It will be so 
 much better," she urged. 
 
 As Sir Hugh never denied Enid anything, 
 he acquiesced. Packing was speedily concluded, 
 and, much to the regret of Blanche, the pair left 
 in a fly for which they had telephoned to Con- 
 flans-Jarny. 
 
 The train by which they travelled ran 
 through the beautiful valley of Manvaux, past 
 the great forts of Plappeville and St. Quentin,
 
 1 86 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 and across the Moselle to Metz, and so into Ger- 
 man territory. 
 
 Whatever might happen, Sir Hugh re- 
 flected, at least he was now safe from arrest. 
 While Enid, on her part, sat back in the corner 
 of the first-class compartment gazing out of the 
 window, still mystified by that strange warning 
 from the man who only a few days previously 
 had so curiously turned and abandoned her.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 THE ACCUSERS 
 
 AT the same hour when Enid and Sir Hugh 
 were passing Amanvilliers, once the scene of 
 terrible atrocities by the Huns, Paul Le Pon- 
 tois, between two agents of police, was ushered 
 into the private cabinet where, at the great writ- 
 ing-table near the window, sat a short man with 
 bristling hair and snow-wtyte moustache, Mon- 
 sieur Henri Bezard, chief of the Surete 
 Generale. 
 
 A keen-faced, black-eyed man of dapper 
 appearance, wearing the coveted button of the 
 Legion d'Honneur in his black frock-coat, he 
 looked up sharply at the man brought into his 
 presence, wished him a curt " bon jour," and 
 motioned him to a seat at the opposite side of the 
 big table, in such a position that the grey light 
 from the long window fell directly upon his 
 countenance. 
 
 With him, standing about the big, handsome 
 room with its green-baize doors and huge oil 
 paintings on the walls, were four elderly men, 
 strangers to Paul. 
 
 187
 
 1 88 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 The severe atmosphere of that sombre apart- 
 ment, wherein sat the chief of the police of the 
 Republic, was depressing. Those present 
 moved noiselessly over the thick Turkey carpet, 
 while the double windows excluded every sound 
 from the busy boulevard below. 
 
 ' Your name," exclaimed the great Bezard 
 sharply, at last raising his eyes from a file of 
 papers before him " your name is Paul Robert 
 Le Pontois, son of Paul Le Pontois, rentier of 
 Severac, Department of Aveyron. During the 
 war you were captain in the 114th Regiment of 
 Artillery, and you now reside with your wife 
 and daughter at the Chateau of Lerouville. Are 
 those details correct?" 
 
 " Perfectly, m'sieur," replied the man seated 
 with the two police agents standing behind him. 
 He wore his black evening trousers and a brown 
 tweed jacket which one of the detectives had 
 lent him. 
 
 " You have been placed under arrest by or- 
 der of the Ministry," replied Bezard, speaking 
 in his quick, impetuous way. 
 
 " I am aware of that, m'sieur," was Paul's 
 reply, " but I am in ignorance of the charge 
 against me." 
 
 " Well," exclaimed Bezard very gravely, 
 again referring to the formidable dossier before
 
 The Accusers 189 
 
 him, " the charge brought against you is most 
 serious. It is astounding and disgraceful. Lis- 
 ten, and I will read it. Afterwards we will hear 
 what explanation you have to offer. We are 
 assembled for that purpose." 
 
 The four other men had taken chairs near 
 by, while Pierrepont was standing at some dis- 
 tance away, with his back to the wood fire. 
 
 For a second Bezard paused, then, rubbing 
 his gold pince-nez and adjusting them, he read 
 in a cold, hard voice the following: 
 
 ' The charge alleged against you, Paul Rob- 
 ert Le Pontois, is that upon four separate occa- 
 sions you have placed in circulation forged Bank 
 of England and Treasury notes of England to 
 the extent of nearly a million francs." 
 
 " It's a lie! " cried Paul, jumping to his feet, 
 his face aflame. " Before God, I swear it is 
 a lie!" 
 
 " Calm yourself and listen," commanded the 
 great chief of the Surete Generate sharply. 
 " Be seated." 
 
 The prisoner sank back into his chair again. 
 His head was reeling. Who could possibly have 
 made such unfounded charges against him? He 
 could scarcely believe his ears. 
 
 Then the hard-faced, white-headed old di- 
 rector, who held supreme command of the police
 
 i9 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 of the Republic, glanced at him shrewdly, and, 
 continuing, said: "It is alleged that you, Paul 
 Le Pontois, on the fourteenth day of January, 
 and again on the sixteenth of May, met in Com- 
 mercy a certain Englishman, and handed to him 
 a bundle of English notes since proved to be 
 forgeries." 
 
 " I am not acquainted with any English 
 forger," protested Paul. 
 
 " Do not interrupt, m'sieur! " snapped the 
 director. ' You will, later on, be afforded full 
 opportunity to make any statement or explana- 
 tion you may wish. First listen to these grave 
 charges against you." After a further pause, 
 he added: " The third occasion, it is alleged, was 
 on April the eighth last, when it seems you drove 
 at early morning over to Thillot-sous-les-C6tes 
 and there met a stranger who was afterwards 
 identified as an American who is wanted for 
 banknote forgeries." 
 
 "And the fourth?" asked Paul hoarsely. 
 This string of allegations utterly staggered him. 
 
 ' The fourth occasion was quite recently," 
 Bezard said, still speaking in that same cold 
 tone. " On that occasion you made certain cal- 
 culations to ascertain how much were your 
 profits by dealing with these forgers whom Scot- 
 land Yard are so anxious to arrest. You wrote
 
 The Accusers 191 
 
 all the sums down, knowing your expenditure 
 and profits. The latter were very considerable." 
 
 " And by whom is it alleged that I am a 
 dealer in base money, pray? " 
 
 "It is not necessary for us to disclose the 
 name of our informant," was the stiff rejoinder. 
 
 " But surely I am not to be thus denounced 
 by an anonymous enemy? " he cried. " This is 
 not the justice which every Frenchman claims 
 as his birthright! " 
 
 ' You have demanded to know the charges 
 laid against you, and I have detailed them," 
 replied the chief of the Surete, regarding the 
 prisoner closely through his gold pince-nez. 
 
 ' They are false every word of them," 
 promptly returned Le Pontois. " I have no ac- 
 quaintance with any banknote forger. If I had, 
 he would quickly find himself under arrest." 
 
 The four men seated in his vicinity smiled 
 grimly. They had expected the prisoner to de- 
 clare his innocence. 
 
 " I may tell you that the information here " 
 and Bezard tapped the dossier before him 
 " is from a source in which we have the most 
 complete and implicit confidence. For the past 
 few months there have been suspicions that 
 forged English notes have been put into circula- 
 tion in France. Therefore I ordered a vigilant
 
 192 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 watch to be maintained. Monsieur Pierrepont, 
 here, has been in command of a squadron of con- 
 fidential agents." 
 
 " And they have watched me, and, I sup- 
 pose, have manufactured evidence against me I 
 It is only what may be expected of men paid 
 to spy upon us. If I am a forger or a friend of 
 forgers, as you allege me to be, then I am un- 
 worthy to have served in the uniform of France. 
 But I tell you that the allegations you have just 
 read are lies lies, every word of them." And 
 Le Pontois* pale cheeks flushed crimson with 
 anger. 
 
 " Le Pontois," remarked a tall, thin, elderly 
 commissaire who was present, " it is for you to 
 prove your innocence. The information laid be- 
 fore us is derived from those who have daily 
 watched your movements and reported them. 
 If you can prove to us that it is false, then your 
 innocence may be established." 
 
 " But I am innocent! " he protested, " there- 
 fore I have no fear what charges may be laid 
 against me. They cannot be substantiated. 
 The whole string of allegations is utterly 
 ridiculous! " 
 
 " Eh bien! Then let us commence with the 
 first," exclaimed Bezard, again referring to the 1 
 file of secret reports before him. " On Wednes-
 
 The Accusers 193 
 
 day, the fourteenth day of January, you went to 
 Commercy, where, at the Cafe de la Cloche, you 
 met a certain Belgian who passed under the 
 name of Laloux." 
 
 " I recollect! " cried Le Pontois quickly. " I 
 sold him a horse. He was a dealer." 
 
 " A dealer in forged notes," remarked one 
 of the officials, with a faint smile. 
 
 ' Was he a forger, then? " asked Le Pontois 
 in entire surprise. 
 
 ' Yes. He has entered France several times 
 in the guise of a horsedealer," Pierrepont in- 
 terrupted. 
 
 " But I only bought a horse of him," de- 
 clared the prisoner vehemently. 
 
 " And you paid for it in English notes, 
 apologising that you had no other money. He 
 took them, for he passed them in Belgium into 
 an English bank in Brussels. They were 
 forged!" 
 
 " Again, on the sixteenth of May, you met 
 the man Laloux at the same place," said Bezard. 
 
 " He had a mare to sell I tried to buy it 
 for my wife to drive, but he wanted too much." 
 
 ' You remained the night at the Hotel de 
 Paris, and saw him again at nine o'clock next 
 morning." 
 
 " True. I hoped to strike a bargain with
 
 194 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 him in the morning, but we could not come to 
 terms." 
 
 " Regarding the forged English notes you 
 were prepared to sell, eh? " snapped Bezard, 
 with a look of disbelief. 
 
 " I had nothing to sell! " protested Le Pon- 
 tois, drawing himself up. ' Those who have 
 spied upon me have told untruths." 
 
 " But the individual, Laloux, was watched. 
 One of our agents followed him to Brussels, 
 where he went next day to the English bank in 
 the Montagne de la Cour." 
 
 " Not with forged notes from me. My deal- 
 ings with him were in every way honest business 
 transactions." 
 
 ' You mean that you received money from 
 him, eh?" 
 
 " I do not deny thatv^ I sold him a horse on 
 the first occasion. He paid me seven hundred 
 francs for it, and I afterwards purchased one 
 from him." 
 
 " So you do not deny that you received 
 money from that man? " 
 
 ' Why should I? I sold him a horse, and he 
 paid me for it." 
 
 ' Very well," said Bezard, with some hesita- 
 tion. " Let us pass to the eighth of April. At 
 six o'clock that morning you drove to Thillot-
 
 The Accusers 195 
 
 sous-les-C6tes, where you met a stranger at the 
 entrance to the village, and walked with him, 
 and held a long and earnest conversation." 
 
 Paul was silent for a moment. The incident 
 recalled was one that he would fain have for- 
 gotten, one the truth of which he intended at 
 all hazards to conceal. 
 
 " I admit that I went to Thillot in secret," 
 he answered in a changed voice. 
 
 " Ah! Then you do not deny that you were 
 attracted by the promises of substantial pay- 
 ment for certain forged English notes which you 
 could furnish, eh ? " grunted Bezard in satis- 
 faction. 
 
 " I admit going to Thillot, but I deny your 
 allegation," cried Paul in quick protest. 
 
 ' Then perhaps you will tell us the reason 
 you took that early drive? " asked a commissaire, 
 with a short, hard laugh of disbelief. 
 
 The prisoner hesitated. It was a purely 
 personal matter, one which concerned himself 
 alone. 
 
 " I regret, messieurs," was his slow reply, 
 " I regret that I am unable indeed, I am not 
 permitted to answer that question." 
 
 " Pray why? " inquired Bezard. 
 
 " Well because it concerns a woman's hon-
 
 196 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 our," was the low, hoarse reply, " the honour 
 of the wife of a certain officer." 
 
 At those words of his the men interrogating 
 him laughed in derision, declaring it to be a very 
 elegant excuse. 
 
 " It is no excuse ! " he cried fiercely, again 
 rising from his chair. ' When I have obtained 
 permission to speak, messieurs, I will tell you 
 the truth. Until then I shall remain silent." 
 
 "Eh, bien!" snapped Bezard. "And so 
 we will pass to the next and final charge that 
 you prepared a statement in order to satisfy 
 yourself regarding the profits of your dealings 
 in these spurious notes." 
 
 "I have no knowledge of such a thing!" 
 Paul replied instantly. 
 
 " And yet for several 'weeks past a mysteri- 
 ous friend of yours has been seen in the neigh- 
 bourhood of your chateau. He has been staying 
 in Commercy and in Longuyon. I gave orders 
 for his arrest, but, with his usual cleverness, he 
 escaped from Commercy." 
 
 " I prepared no statement." 
 
 "H'm!" grunted Bezard, looking straight 
 into his flushed face. * You are quite certain 
 of that?" 
 
 " I swear I did not." 
 ' Then perhaps you will deny that this is in
 
 The Accusers 197 
 
 your hand? " the director asked slowly, with a 
 grin, as he fixed his eyes upon Paul and handed 
 him a sheet of his own note-paper bearing the 
 address of the chateau embossed in green. 
 
 Paul took it in his trembling fingers, and as 
 he did so his countenance fell. 
 
 It was the rough account of his investments 
 and profits he remembered making for his 
 father-in-law. He had cast it unheeded into the 
 waste-paper basket, whence it had, no doubt, 
 been recovered by those who had spied upon him 
 and placed with the reports as evidence against 
 him. 
 
 ' You admit making that calculation? " 
 asked Bezard severely. * Those figures are, I be- 
 lieve, in your handwriting? " 
 
 * Yes ; but I have had nothing to do with 
 any forgers of banknotes," declared the un- 
 happy man, reseating himself. 
 
 " Ah ! Then you admit making the calcula- 
 tion? That in itself is sufficient for the present. 
 However, cannot you give us some explanation 
 of that secret visit of yours to Thillot? Re- 
 member, you have to prove your innocence ! " 
 
 " I I cannot not, at least, at present," 
 faltered the prisoner. 
 
 "You refuse?" 
 
 " Yes, m'sieur, I flatly refuse," was the
 
 198 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 hoarse reply. " As I have told you, that visit 
 concerned the honour of a woman." 
 
 The men again exchanged glances of disbe- 
 lief, while the victim of those dastardly allega- 
 tions sat breathless, amazed at the astounding 
 manner in which his most innocent actions had 
 been misconstrued into incriminating evidence. 
 
 He was under arrest as one who had placed 
 forged English banknotes in circulation in 
 France !
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 IN WHICH A TRUTH IS HIDDEN 
 
 WHEN Walter Fetherston entered the tasteful 
 drawing-room at Hill Street four days later he 
 found Enid alone, seated by the fire. 
 
 The dull London light of the autumn after- 
 noon was scarcely sufficient for him to distin- 
 guish every object in the apartment, but as he 
 advanced she rose and stood silhouetted against 
 the firelight, a slight, graceful figure, with hand 
 outstretched. 
 
 " Both mother and Sir Hugh are out gone 
 to a matinee at the Garrick," she exclaimed. 
 "I'm so glad you've come in," and she placed 
 a chair for him. 
 
 " I have heard that you are leaving for 
 Egypt to-morrow," he said, " and I wished to 
 have a chat with you." 
 
 ' We go to Italy first, and to Egypt after 
 Christmas," she replied. " Mother has promised 
 to join us in Luxor at the end of January." 
 
 "If I were you, -Enid," he replied gravely, 
 
 199
 
 200 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 bending towards her, " I would make some ex- 
 cuse and remain in England." 
 
 " Why? " she asked, her eyes opening widely. 
 "I don't understand!'' 
 
 " I regret that I am unable to speak more 
 plainly," he said. " I warned you to leave 
 France, and I was glad that you and Sir Hugh 
 heeded my warning. Otherwise well, perhaps 
 an unpleasant incident would have resulted." 
 
 * You always speak in enigmas nowadays," 
 said the girl, again standing near the fireplace, 
 dainty in her dark skirt and cream silk jumper. 
 
 ' Why did you send me that extraordinary 
 note?" 
 
 " In your own interests," was his vague re- 
 ply. " I became aware that your further pres- 
 ence in the house of Monsieur Le Pontois was 
 well undesirable that's all." 
 
 " I really think you entertain some antago- 
 nism against Paul," she declared, " yet he's such 
 a good fellow." 
 
 The novelist's eyes sparkled through his 
 pince-nez as he replied: " He's very good-look- 
 ing, I admit, and, no doubt, a perfect cavalier." 
 
 * You suspect me of flirtations with him, of 
 course," she pouted. :< Well, you're not the first 
 man who has chaffed me about that." 
 
 " No, no," he laughed. " I'm in no way
 
 In which a Truth is Hidden 201 
 
 jealous, I assure you. I merely told you that 
 your departure from the chateau would be for 
 the best." 
 
 He did not tell her that within an hour of 
 their leaving French territory an official tele- 
 gram had been received from Paris by the local 
 commissaire of police with orders to detain them 
 both, nor that just before dark an insignificant- 
 looking man in black had called at the chateau 
 and been informed by Jean that the English 
 general and his stepdaughter had already de- 
 parted. 
 
 The whole of that night the wires between 
 the sous-prefecture at Briey and Paris had been 
 at work, and many curious official messaged had 
 been exchanged. Truly, the pair had had a 
 providential escape. 
 
 Sir Hugh was, of course, in entire ignorance 
 of the dastardly action taken by the Pimlice 
 doctor. 
 
 Without duly counting the cost, he had de- 
 clared at his last interview with Weirmarsh that 
 their criminal partnership was now at an end. 
 And the doctor had taken him at his word. 
 
 Had not the doctor in London told his as- 
 sistant, Heureux, that Sir Hugh's sphere of 
 usefulness was at an end, and that, in all prob- 
 ability, a contretemps would occur one which
 
 202 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 would in future save to " the syndicate " the sum 
 of five thousand pounds per annum? 
 
 Truth to tell, Bezard, director of the Surete, 
 had telegraphed orders for the arrest of Sir Hugh 
 and his daughter. But, thanks to the shrewd- 
 ness of Fetherston, who had lingered in the 
 vicinity to afford them protection if necessary, 
 they had succeeded in escaping only a single 
 hour before the message reached its destination. 
 
 Neither of them knew of this, and the novel- 
 ist intended that they should remain in igno- 
 rance just as they were still in ignorance of 
 the reason of Paul's visit to Paris and of his de- 
 tention there. 
 
 If they were aware of the reason of his warn- 
 ing, then they would most certainly question him 
 as to the manner in which he was able to gain 
 knowledge of the betrayal by Weirmarsh. He 
 had no desire to be questioned upon such mat- 
 ters. The motives of his action always swift, 
 full of shrewd foresight, and often in disregard 
 of his own personal safety were known alone 
 to himself and to Scotland Yard. 
 
 If the truth were told, he had not been alone 
 in Eastern France. At the little old-world 
 Croix-Blanche at Briey a stout, middle-aged, 
 ruddy-faced English tourist had had his head- 
 quarters; while, again, at the unpretending
 
 In which a Truth is Hidden 203 
 
 Cloche d'Or in the Place St. Paul at Verdun 
 another Englishman, a young, active, clean- 
 shaven man, had been moving about the country 
 in constant communication with " Mr. Malt- 
 wood." Wherever the doctor from Pimlico and 
 his assistant, Heureux, had gone, there also went 
 one or other of those two sharp-eyed but unob- 
 trusive Englishmen. Every action of the doctor 
 had been noted, and information of it conveyed 
 to the quiet-mannered man in pince-nez. 
 
 " Really, Walter, you are quite as mysteri- 
 ous as your books," Enid was declaring, with a 
 laugh. " I do wish you would satisfy my curi- 
 osity and tell me why you urged me to leave 
 France so suddenly." 
 
 " I had reasons strong reasons which you 
 may, perhaps, some day know," was his re- 
 sponse. " I am only glad that you thought fit 
 to take the advice I offered. This afternoon I 
 have called to give you further advice namely, 
 to remain in England, at least for the present." 
 
 " But I can't. My friend Jane Caldwell has 
 been waiting a whole fortnight for me, suffering 
 from asthma in these abominable fogs." 
 
 ' You can make some excuse. I assure you 
 that to remain in London will be for the best," 
 he said, while she switched on the shaded electrio 
 lights, which shed a soft glow over the handsome
 
 204 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 room that apartment, the costly furniture of 
 which had been purchased out of the money se- 
 cretly supplied by Weirmarsh. 
 
 " But I can't see why I should remain," she 
 protested, facing him again. He noted how 
 strikingly handsome she was, her dimpled cheeks 
 delicately moulded and her pretty chin slightly 
 protruding, which gave a delightful piquancy to 
 her features. 
 
 " I wish I could explain further. I can't at 
 present ! " 
 
 ' You are, as I have already said, so amaz- 
 ingly mysterious so full of secrets always!" 
 
 The man sighed, his brows knit slightly. 
 
 "Yes," he said, "I am full of secrets- 
 strange, astounding secrets they are secrets 
 which some time, if divulged, would mean terri- 
 ble complications, ruin to those who are believed 
 to be honest and upright." 
 
 The girl stood for a few seconds in silence. 
 
 She had heard strange rumours regarding 
 the man seated there before her. Some had 
 hinted that he, on more than one occasion, act- 
 ing in an unofficial capacity, had arranged im- 
 portant treaties between Great Britain and a 
 foreign Power, leaving to ambassadors the ar- 
 rangements of detail and the final ratification. 
 There were whispers abroad that he was a
 
 In which a Truth is Hidden 205 
 
 trusted and tried agent of the British Govern- 
 ment, but in exactly what capacity was unknown. 
 His name frequently appeared among the in- 
 vited guests of Cabinet Ministers, and he re- 
 ceived cards for many official functions, but the 
 actual manner in which he rendered assistance 
 to the Government was always kept a most pro- 
 found secret. 
 
 More than once Sir Hugh had mentioned 
 the matter over the dining-table, expressing 
 wonder as to Fetherston's real position. 
 
 ' You know him well, Enid," he had ex- 
 claimed once, laughing over to her. ' What is 
 your opinion? " 
 
 " I really haven't any," she declared. " His 
 movements are certainly rapid, and often most 
 mysterious." 
 
 " He's a most excellent fellow," declared the 
 old general. " Cartwright told me so the other 
 day in the club. Cartwright was ambassador 
 in Petrograd before the war." 
 
 Enid remembered this as she stood there, her 
 hands behind her back. 
 
 " Before I left I heard that Paul had been 
 called unexpectedly to Paris," he said a few mo- 
 ments later. " Has he returned? " 
 
 " Not yet, I believe. I had a letter from 
 Blanche this morning. When it was written,
 
 206 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 two days ago, he was still absent." Then she 
 added: " There is some mystery regarding his 
 visit to the capital. Blanche left for Paris yes- 
 terday, I believe, for she had telegraphed to him, 
 but received no reply." 
 
 " She has gone to Paris ! " he echoed. ' Why 
 did she go? It was silly! " 
 
 ' Well because she is puzzled, I think. It 
 was very strange that Paul, even though at the 
 very gate, did not leave those two men and wish 
 her adieu." 
 
 ' Two men what two men? " he asked in 
 affected ignorance. 
 
 ' The two men who stopped the car and de~ 
 manded to speak with him," she said; and, con- 
 tinuing, described to him that remarkable mid- 
 night incident close to the chateau. 
 
 " No doubt he went to Paris upon some im- 
 portant business," Fetherston said, reassuring 
 her. " It was, I think, foolish of his wife to fol- 
 low. At least, that's my opinion." 
 
 He knew that when madame arrived in Paris 
 the ghastly truth must, sooner or later, be re- 
 vealed.
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 IN WHICH A TRUTH IS TOLD 
 
 As Fetherston sat there, still chatting with his 
 well-beloved, he felt a hatred of himself for be- 
 ing thus compelled to deceive her to withhold 
 from her the hideous truth of Paul's arrest. 
 
 After all, silence was best. If Walter spoke 
 to the girl before him, then he must of necessity 
 reveal his own connection with the affair. He 
 knew she had been puzzled by his presence in 
 France, but his explanation, he hoped, had been 
 sufficient. He had assured her that the only mo- 
 tive of his journey had been to be near her, 
 which was, indeed, no untruth. 
 
 He saw that Enid was not altogether at her 
 ease in his presence. Perhaps it was because of 
 those questions and his plain outspokenness 
 when last they met, on that forest road, where 
 they had discussed the strange death of Harry 
 Bellairs. 
 
 On that evening, full of suspicion and appre- 
 hension, he had decided to tear himself away 
 from her. But, alas! he had found himself 
 powerless to do so. Pity and sympathy filled 
 
 207
 
 208 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 his heart; therefore, how could he turn from 
 her and abandon her at this moment of her peril ? 
 It was on the next day that he had discerned 
 Weirmarsh's sinister intentions. Therefore, he 
 had risen to watch and to combat them. 
 
 Some of his suspicions had been confirmed, 
 nevertheless his chief object had not yet been 
 attained the elucidation of the mystery sur- 
 rounding the remarkable death of Bellairs. 
 
 He was about to refer again to that tragic 
 incident when Enid said suddenly: "Doctor 
 Weirmarsh called and saw Sir Hugh this morn- 
 ing. You told me to tell you when next he 
 called." 
 
 ;< Weirmarsh ! " exclaimed the novelist in 
 surprise. " I was not aware that he was in 
 London! " 
 
 " He's been abroad in Copenhagen, I 
 think. He has a brother living there." 
 
 " He had a private talk with your stepfather, 
 of course? " 
 
 ' Yes, as usual, they were in the study for 
 quite a long time nearly two hours. And," 
 added the girl, " I believe that at last they quar- 
 relled. If they have, I'm awfully glad, for I 
 hate that man! " 
 
 " Did you overhear them? " asked Fether- 
 ston anxiously, apprehensive lest an open quar-
 
 In which a Truth is Told 209 
 
 rel had actually taken place. He knew well that 
 Josef Blot, alias Weirmarsh, was not a man to 
 be trifled with. If Sir Hugh had served his pur- 
 pose, as he no doubt had, then he would be be- 
 trayed to the police without compunction, just 
 as ethers had been. 
 
 Walter Fetherston grew much perturbed at 
 the knowledge of this quarrel between the pair. 
 His sole aim was to protect Sir Hugh, yet how 
 to act he knew not. 
 
 ' You did not actually hear any of the words 
 spoken, I suppose? " he inquired of Enid. 
 
 " Not exactly, except that I heard my step- 
 father denounce the doctor as an infernal cur 
 and blackguard." 
 
 ' Well, and what did Weirmarsh reply? " 
 
 " He threatened Sir Hugh, saying, * You 
 shall suffer for those words you, who owe 
 everything to me ! ' I wonder," added the girl, 
 "what he meant by that?" 
 
 " Who knows! " exclaimed Walter. " Some 
 secret exists between them. You told me that 
 you suspected it long ago." 
 
 " And I do," she said, lowering her voice. 
 " That man holds Sir Hugh in the hollow of his 
 hand of that I'm sure. I have noticed after 
 each of the doctor's visits how pale and thought- 
 ful he always is."
 
 210 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 " Have you tried to learn the reason of it 
 all? " inquired the novelist quietly, his gaze fixed 
 upon her. 
 
 " I have," she replied, with slight hesitation. 
 
 Walter Fetherston contemplated in silence 
 the fine cat's-eye and diamond ring upon his 
 finger a ring sent him long ago by an anony- 
 mous admirer of his books, which he had ever 
 since worn as a mascot. 
 
 At one moment he held this girl in distinct 
 suspicion; at the next, however, he realised her 
 peril, and resolved to stand by her as her cham- 
 pion. 
 
 Did he really and honestly love her? He 
 put that question to himself a thousand times. 
 And for the thousandth time was he compelled 
 to answer in the affirmative. 
 
 " By which route do you intend travelling to 
 Italy to-morrow?" he asked. 
 
 " By Paris and Modane. We go first for a 
 week to Nervi, on the coast beyond Genoa," was 
 her reply. 
 
 Fetherston paused. If she put foot in 
 France she would, he knew, be at once placed 
 under arrest as an accomplice of Paul Le Pon- 
 tois. When Weirmarsh took revenge he always 
 did his work well. No doubt the French police 
 were already at Calais awaiting her arrival.
 
 In which a Truth is Told 2111 
 
 " I would change the route/' he suggested. 
 " Go by Ostend, Strasburg and Milan." 
 
 " Mrs. Caldwell has already taken our 
 tickets," she said. " Besides, it is a terribly long 
 way round by that route." 
 
 " I know," he murmured. " But it will be 
 best. I have a reason a strong reason, Enid, 
 for urging you to go by Ostend." 
 
 "It is not in my power to do so. Jane al- 
 ways makes our travelling arrangements. Be- 
 sides, we have sleeping berths secured on the 
 night rapide from the Gare de Lyon to Turin." 
 
 " I will see Mrs. Caldwell, and get her tickets 
 changed," he said. " Do you understand, Enid? 
 There are reasons very strong reasons why 
 you should not travel across France ! " 
 
 " No, I don't," declared the girl. " You are 
 mysterious again. Why don't you be open with 
 me and give me your reasons for this sugges- 
 tion?" 
 
 " I would most willingly if I could," he an- 
 swered. " Unfortunately, I cannot." 
 
 " I don't think Mrs. Caldwell will travel by 
 the roundabout route which you suggest merely 
 because you have a whim that we should not 
 cross France," she remarked, looking straight 
 at him. 
 
 " If you enter France a disaster will happen
 
 212 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 depend upon it," he said, speaking very 
 slowly, his eyes fixed upon her. 
 
 " Are you a prophet? " the girl asked. 
 " Can you prophesy dreadful things to happen 
 to us? " 
 
 " I do in this case," he said firmly. ' There- 
 fore, take my advice and do not court disaster." 
 
 " Can't you be more explicit? " she asked, 
 much puzzled by his strange words. 
 
 " No," he answered, shaking his head, " I 
 cannot. I only forewarn you of what must hap- 
 pen. Therefore, I beg of you to take my advice 
 and travel by the alternative route if you really 
 must go to Italy." 
 
 She turned towards the fire and, fixing her 
 gaze upon the flames, remained for a few mo- 
 ments in thought, one neat foot upon the marble 
 kerb. 
 
 * You really alarm me with all these serious 
 utterances," she said at last, with a faint, ner- 
 vous laugh. 
 
 He rose and stood by her side. 
 
 " Look here, Enid," he said, " can't you see 
 that I am in dead earnest? Have I not already 
 declared that I am your friend, to assist you 
 against that man Weirmarsh?" 
 
 ' Yes," she replied, " you have." 
 
 " Then will you not heed my warning?
 
 In which a Truth is Told 213 
 
 There is distinct danger in your visit to France 
 a danger of which you have no suspicion, but 
 real and serious nevertheless. Don't think about 
 spying; it is not that, I assure you," 
 
 " How can I avoid it? " 
 
 " By pretending to be unwell," he suggested 
 quickly. ' You cannot leave with Mrs. Cald- 
 well. Let her go, and you can join her a few 
 days later, travelling by Ostend. The thing is 
 quite simple." 
 
 " But- 
 
 " No, you must not hesitate," he declared. 
 ' There are no buts. It is the only way." 
 
 ' Yes ; but tell me what terrible thing is to 
 happen to me if I enter France? " she asked, 
 with an uneasy laugh. 
 
 The man hesitated. To speak the truth 
 would be to explain all. Therefore he only 
 shook his head and said, " Please do not ask me 
 to explain a matter of which I am not permitted 
 to speak. If you believe me, Enid," he said in 
 a low, pleading voice, " do heed my warning, I 
 beg of you! " 
 
 As he uttered these words the handle of the 
 door turned, and Lady Elcombe, warmly clad in 
 furs, came forward to greet the novelist. 
 
 "I'm so glad that I returned before you left, 
 Mr. Fetherston," she exclaimed. " We've been
 
 214 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 to a most dreary play; and I'm simply dying 
 for some tea. Enid, ring the bell, dear, will 
 you?" Then continuing, she added in warm 
 enthusiasm : " Really, Mr. Fetherston, you are 
 quite a stranger! We hoped to see more of you, 
 but my husband and daughter have been away 
 in France as perhaps you know." 
 
 " So Enid has been telling me," replied Wal- 
 ter. " They've been in a most interesting dis- 
 trict." 
 
 " Enid is leaving us again to-morrow morn- 
 ing," remarked her mother. ; They are going 
 to Nervi. You know it, of course, for I've heard 
 you called the living Baedeker, Mr. Fether- 
 ston," she laughed. 
 
 ' Yes," he replied, " I know it a rather dull 
 little place, with one or two villas. I prefer 
 Santa Margherita, a little farther along the coast 
 or Rapallo. But," he added, " your daughter 
 tells me she's not well. I hope she will not be 
 compelled to postpone her departure." 
 
 " Of course not," said Lady Elcombe de- 
 cisively. " She must go to-morrow if she goes 
 at all. I will not allow her to travel by herself." 
 
 The girl and the man exchanged meaning 
 glances, and just then Sir Hugh himself entered, 
 greeting his visitor cheerily.
 
 In which a Truth is Told 215 
 
 The butler brought in the tea-tray, and as 
 they sat together the two men chatted. 
 
 In pretence that he had not been abroad, 
 Walter was making inquiry regarding the dis- 
 trict around Haudiomont, which he declared 
 must be full of interest, and asking the general's 
 opinion of the French new fortresses in antici- 
 pation of the new war against Germany. 
 
 " Since I have been away," said the general, 
 " I have been forced to arrive at the conclusion 
 that another danger may arrive in the very near 
 future. Germany will try and attack France 
 again without a doubt. The French are 
 labouring under a dangerous delusion if they 
 suppose that Germany would be satisfied with 
 hei* obscurity." 
 
 "Is that really your opinion, Sir Hugh?" 
 asked Fetherston, somewhat surprised. 
 
 " Certainly," was the general's reply. 
 " There will be another war in the near future. 
 My opinions have changed of late, my dear 
 Fetherston," Sir Hugh assured him, as he sipped 
 his tea, " and more especially since I went to 
 visit my daughter. I have recently had oppor- 
 tunities of seeing and learning a good deal." 
 
 Fetherston reflected. Those words, coming 
 from Sir Hugh, were certainly strange ones. 
 
 Walter was handing Enid the cake when the
 
 2i 6 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 butler entered, bearing a telegram upon a silver 
 salver, which he handed to Sir Hugh. 
 
 Tearing it open, he glanced at the message 
 eagerly, and a second later, with blanched face, 
 stood rigid, statuesque, as though turned into 
 stone. 
 
 ' Why, what's the matter? " asked his wife. 
 " Whom is it from? " 
 
 " Only from Blanche," he answered in a low, 
 strained voice. " She is in Paris and is leav- 
 ing to-night for London." 
 
 " Is Paul coming? " inquired Enid eagerly. 
 
 " No," he answered, with a strenuous effort 
 to remain calm. " He he cannot leave Paris." 
 
 The butler, being told there was no answer, 
 bowed and withdrew, but a few seconds later the 
 door reopened, and he announced: 
 
 "Dr. Weirmarsh, Sir Hugh!"
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 THE WIDENED BREACH 
 
 WHEN Sir Hugh entered his cosy study he 
 found the doctor seated at his ease in the big 
 chair by the fire. 
 
 " I thought that, being in the vicinity, I 
 would call and see if you've recovered from your 
 well, your silly fit of irritability," he said, with 
 a grim smile on his grey face as he looked 
 towards the general. 
 
 " I have just received bad news news which 
 I have all along dreaded," replied the unhappy 
 man, the telegram still in his hand. " Paul Le 
 Pontois has been arrested on some mysterious 
 charge false, without a doubt! " 
 
 ' Yes," replied Weirmarsh ; "it is most un- 
 fortunate. I heard it an hour ago, and the real 
 reason of my visit was to tell you of the contre- 
 temps." 
 
 " Someone must have made a false charge 
 against him," cried the general excitedly. ' The 
 poor fellow is innocent entirely innocent! I 
 only have a brief telegram from his wife. She 
 is in despair, and leaves for London to-night." 
 
 217
 
 218 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 " My dear Sir Hugh, France is in a very 
 hysterical mood just now. Of course, there 
 must be some mistake. Some private enemy of 
 his has made the charge without a doubt some- 
 one jealous of his position, perhaps. Allega- 
 tions are easily made, though not so easily sub- 
 stantiated." 
 
 " Except by manufactured evidence and 
 forged documents," snapped Sir Hugh. " If 
 Paul is the victim of some political party and 
 is to be made a scapegoat, then Heaven help 
 him, poor fellow. They will never allow him to 
 prove his innocence, unless " 
 
 " Unless what? " 
 
 " Unless I come forward," he said very 
 slowly, staring straight before him. " Unless 
 I come forward and tell the truth of my deal- 
 ings with you. The charges against Paul are 
 false. I know it now. What have you to say? " 
 he added in a low, hard voice. 
 
 "A great deal of good that would do!" 
 laughed Weirmarsh, selecting a cigarette from 
 his gold case and lighting it, regarding his host 
 with those narrow-set, sinister eyes of his. " It 
 would only implicate Le Pontois further. They 
 would say, and with truth, that you knew of the 
 whole conspiracy and had profited by it." 
 
 " I should tell them what I know concerning
 
 The Widened Breach 219 
 
 you. Indeed, I wrote out a full statement while 
 I was staying with Paul. And I have it ready 
 to hand for the authorities." 
 
 ' You can do so, of course, if you choose," 
 was the careless reply. " It really doesn't mat- 
 ter to me what statement you make. You have 
 always preserved silence up to the present, there- 
 fore I should believe that in this case silence was 
 still golden." 
 
 " And you suggest that I stand calmly by 
 and see Le Pontois sentenced to a long term of 
 imprisonment for a crime which he has not com- 
 mitted, eh? " 
 
 " I don't suggest anything, my dear Sir 
 Hugh," was the man's reply; " I leave it all to 
 your good judgment." 
 
 Since they had met in secret Weirmarsh had 
 made a flying visit to Brussels, where he had 
 conferred with two friends of his. Upon their 
 suggestion he was now acting. 
 
 If Paul Le Pontois were secretly denounced 
 and afterwards found innocent, then it would 
 only mystify the French police; the policy pur- 
 sued towards the Surete, as well as towards Sir 
 Hugh, was a clever move on Weirmarsh's part. 
 
 ' What am I to say to my poor girl when 
 she arrives here in tears to-morrow? " demanded 
 the fine old British officer hoarsely.
 
 220 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 ' You know that best yourself," was Weir- 
 marsh's brusque reply. 
 
 " To you I owe all my recent troubles," the 
 elder man declared. " Because because," he 
 added bitterly, " you bought me up body and 
 soul." 
 
 "A mere business arrangement, wasn't it, 
 Sir Hugh? " remarked his visitor. " Of course, 
 I'm very sorry if any great trouble has fallen 
 upon you on my account. I hope, for instance, 
 you do not suspect me of conspiring to denounce 
 your son-in-law," he added. 
 
 * Well, I don't know," was the other's reply; 
 " yet I feel that, in view of this contretemps, I 
 must in future break off all connection with 
 you." 
 
 " And lose the annual grant which you find 
 so extremely useful?" 
 
 " I shall be compelled to do without it. And, 
 at least, I shall have peace of mind." 
 
 " Perhaps," remarked the other meaningly. 
 
 Sir Hugh realised that this man intended 
 still to hold him in the hollow of his hand. From 
 that one false step he had taken years ago he had 
 never been able to draw back. 
 
 Hour by hour, and day by day, had his con- 
 science pricked him. Those chats with the doc-
 
 The Widened Breach 221 
 
 tor in that grimy little consulting-room in Pim- 
 lico remained ever in his memory. 
 
 The doctor was the representative of those 
 who held him in their power persons who were 
 being continually hunted by the police, yet who 
 always evaded them criminals all! To insult 
 him would be to insult those who had paid him so 
 well for his confidential services. 
 
 Yet, filled with contempt for himself, he 
 asked whether he did not deserve to be degraded 
 publicly, and drummed out of the army. 
 
 Were it not for Lady Elcombe and Enid he 
 would long ago have gone to East Africa and 
 effaced himself. But he could not bring himself 
 to desert them. 
 
 He had satisfied himself that not a soul in 
 England suspected the truth, for, by the Press, 
 he had long ago been declared to be a patriotic 
 Briton, because in his stirring public speeches, 
 when he had put up for Parliament after the 
 armistice, there was always a genuine " John 
 Bull " ring. 
 
 The truth was that he remained unsuspected 
 by all save by one man who had scented the 
 truth. That man was Walter Fetherston! 
 
 Walter alone knew the ghastly circum- 
 stances, and it was he who had been working to 
 save the old soldier from himself. He did so for
 
 222 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 two reasons first, because he was fond of the 
 bluff , fearless old fellow, and, secondly, because 
 he had been attracted by Enid, and intended to 
 rescue her from the evil thraldom of Weirmarsh. 
 ' Why have you returned here to taunt and 
 irritate me again? " snapped Sir Hugh after a 
 pause. 
 
 " I came to tell you news which, apparently, 
 you have already received." 
 
 ' You could well have kept it. You knew 
 that I should be informed in due course." 
 
 ' Yes but I well, I thought you might 
 grow apprehensive perhaps." 
 
 " In what direction? " 
 
 :< That your connection with the little affair 
 might be discovered by the French police. 
 Bezard, the new chief of the Surete, is a pretty 
 shrewd person, remember!" 
 
 " But, surely, that is not possible, is it? " 
 gasped the elder man in quick alarm. 
 
 " No; you can reassure yourself on that 
 point. Le Pontois knows nothing, therefore he 
 can make no statement unless, of course, your 
 own actions were suspicious." 
 
 " They were not I am convinced of that." 
 
 ;< Then you have no need to fear. Your son- 
 in-law will certainly not endeavour to implicate 
 you. And if he did, he would not be believed,"
 
 The Widened Breach 223 
 
 declared the doctor, although he well knew that 
 Bezard was in possession of full knowledge of 
 the whole truth, and that, only by the timely 
 warning he had so mysteriously received, had 
 this man before him and his stepdaughter es- 
 caped arrest. 
 
 His dastardly plot to secure their ruin and 
 imprisonment had failed. How the girl had ob- 
 tained wind of it utterly mystified him. It was 
 really in order to discover the reason of their 
 sudden flight that he had made those two visits. 
 
 " Look here, Weirmarsh," exclaimed Sir 
 Hugh with sudden resolution, " I wish you to 
 understand that from to-day, once and for all, 
 I desire to have no further dealings with you. 
 It was, as you have said, a purely business trans- 
 action. Well, I have done the dirty, disgraceful 
 work for which you have paid me, and now my 
 task is at an end." 
 
 " I hardly think it is, my dear Sir Hugh," 
 replied the doctor calmly. " As I have said be- 
 fore, I am only the mouthpiece I am not the 
 employer. But I believe that certain further 
 assistance is required information which you 
 promised long ago, but failed to procure." 
 
 " What was that? " 
 
 " You recollect that you promised to obtain
 
 224 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 something a little tittle-tattle concerning a 
 lady." 
 
 ' Yes," snapped the old officer, " oh, Lady 
 Wansford. Let us talk of something else! " 
 
 Weirmarsh, who had been narrowly watch- 
 ing the countenance of his victim, saw that he 
 had mentioned a disagreeable subject. He 
 noted how pale were the general's cheeks, and 
 how his thin hands twitched with suppressed 
 excitement. 
 
 " I am quite ready to talk of other matters," 
 he answered, " though I deem it but right to re- 
 fer to my instructions." 
 
 " And what are they? " 
 
 4 To request you to supply the promised in- 
 formation." 
 
 "But I can't I really can't!" 
 
 * You made a promise, remember. And 
 upon that promise I made you a loan of five hun- 
 dred pounds." 
 
 " I know ! " cried the unhappy man, who had 
 sunk so deeply into the mire that extrication 
 seemed impossible. "I know! But it is a 
 promise that I can't fulfil. I won't be your tool 
 any longer. Gad! I won't. Don't you hear 
 me?" 
 
 ' You must! " declared Weirmarsh, bend- 
 ing forward and looking straight into his eyes.
 
 The Widened Breach 225 
 
 "I will not!" shouted Sir Hugh, his eyes 
 flashing with quick anger. " Anything but 
 that." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 " My efforts in that direction had tragic re- 
 sults on the last occasion." 
 
 " Ah! " laughed Weirmarsh. " I see you 
 are superstitious or something. I did not ex- 
 pect that of you." 
 
 " I am not superstitious, Weirmarsh. I only 
 refuse to do what you w r ant. If I gave it to you, 
 it would mean no I won't I tell you I 
 won't!" 
 
 "Bah! You are growing sentimental!" 
 
 " No I am growing wise. My eyes are at 
 last opened to the dastardly methods of you and 
 your infernal friends. Hear me, once and for 
 all; I refuse to assist you further; and, more- 
 over, I defy you ! " 
 
 The doctor was silent for a moment, contem- 
 plating the ruby on his finger. Then, rising 
 slowly from his chair, he said: " Ah! you do not 
 fully realise what your refusal may cost you." 
 
 " Cost what it may, Weirmarsh, I ask you 
 to leave my house at once," said the general, 
 scarlet with anger and beside himself with re- 
 morse. " And I shall give orders that you are 
 not again to be admitted here."
 
 226 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 ' Very good ! " laughed the other, with a sin- 
 ister grin. ' You will very soon be seeking me 
 in niy surgery." 
 
 :< We shall see," replied Sir Hugh, with a 
 shrug of his shoulders, as the other strode out 
 of his room.
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 CONCERNING THE BELLAIRS AFFAIB 
 
 WHAT Walter Fetherston had feared had hap- 
 pened. The two men had quarrelled! Through- 
 out the wlwle of that evening he watched the 
 doctor's movements. 
 
 In any other country but our dear old hood- 
 winked England, Fetherston, in the ordinary 
 course, would have been the recipient of high 
 honours from the Sovereign. But he was a 
 writer, and not a financier. He could not af- 
 ford to subscribe to the party funds, a course 
 
 suggested by the flat-footed old Lady G , 
 
 who was the tout of Government Whips. 
 
 Walter preferred to preserve his independ- 
 ence. He had seen and known much during the 
 war, and, disgusted, he preferred to adopt the 
 Canadian Government's decree and remain 
 without " honours." 
 
 His pet phrase was: 'The extent of a 
 Party's dishonours is known by the honours it 
 bestows. Scraps of ribbon, ' X.Y.Z.' or O.B.E. 
 behind one's name can neither make the gentle- 
 man nor create the lady." 
 
 27
 
 228 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 His secret connection with Scotland Yard, 
 which was purely patriotic and conducted as a 
 student of underground crime, had taught him 
 many strange things, and he had learnt many 
 remarkable secrets. Some of them were, indeed, 
 his secrets before they became secrets of the 
 Cabinet. 
 
 Many of those secrets he kept to himself, 
 one being the remarkable truth that General Sir 
 Hugh Elcombe was implicated in a very strange 
 jumble of affairs a matter that was indeed 
 incredible. 
 
 To the tall, well-groomed, military-looking 
 man with whom he stood at eleven o'clock on the 
 following morning in a private room at New 
 Scotland Yard he had never confided that dis- 
 covery of his. To have done so would have been 
 to betray a man who had a brilliant record as a 
 soldier, and who still held high position at the 
 War Office. 
 
 By such denunciation he knew he might earn 
 from " the eyes of the Government " very high 
 commendation, in addition to what he had al- 
 ready earned, yet he had resolved, if possible, 
 to save the old officer, who was really more 
 sinned against than sinning. 
 
 ' You seem to keep pretty close at the heels 
 of your friend, the doctor of Vauxhall Bridge
 
 Concerning the Bellairs Affair 229 
 
 Road! " laughed Trendall, the director of the 
 department, as they stood together in the big, 
 airy, official-looking room, the two long windows 
 of which looked out over Westminster Bridge. 
 
 ' You've been in, France, Montgomery says. 
 What was your friend doing there ? " 
 
 " He's been there against his will very 
 much against his will!" 
 
 " And you've found out something eh? " 
 ' Yes," replied Fetherston. " One or two 
 things." 
 
 " Something interesting, of course," re- 
 marked the shrewd, active, dark-haired man of 
 fifty, under whose control was one of the most 
 important departments of Scotland Yard. 
 " But tell me, in what direction is this versatile 
 doctor of yours working just at the present?" 
 
 " I hardly know," was the novelist's reply, as 
 in a navy serge suit he leaned near the window 
 which overlooked the Thames. " I believe some 
 deep scheme is afoot, but at present I cannot 
 see very far. For that reason I am remaining 
 watchful." 
 
 "He does not suspect you, of course? If 
 he does, I'd give you Harris, or Charlesworth, 
 or another of the men in fact, whoever you like 
 to assist you." 
 
 " Perhaps I may require someone before
 
 230 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 long. If so, I will write or wire to the usual pri- 
 vate box at the General Post Office, and shall 
 then be glad if you will send a man to meet me." 
 
 " Certainly. It was you, Fetherston, who 
 first discovered the existence of this interesting 
 doctor, who had already lived in Vauxhall 
 Bridge Road for eighteen months without arous- 
 ing suspicion. You have, indeed, a fine nose 
 for mysteries." 
 
 At that moment the telephone, standing 
 upon the big writing-table, rang loudly, and the 
 man of secrets crossed to it and listened. 
 
 " It's Heywood at Victoria Station. He's 
 asking for you," he exclaimed. 
 
 Walter went to the instrument, and through 
 it heard the words: " The boat train has just 
 gone, sir. Mrs. Caldwell waited for the young 
 lady until the train went off, but she did not 
 arrive. She seemed annoyed and disappointed. 
 Dr. Weirmarsh has been on the platform, evi- 
 dently watching also." 
 
 * Thanks, Heywood," replied Fetherston 
 sharply ; " that was all I wanted to know. Good 
 day." 
 
 He replaced the receiver, and, walking back 
 to his friend against the window, explained : " A 
 simple little inquiry I was making regarding a
 
 Concerning the Bellairs Affair 231 
 
 departure by the boat train for Paris that was 
 all." 
 
 But he reflected that if Weirmarsh had been 
 watching it must have been to warn the French 
 police over at Calais of the coming of Enid. No 
 action was too dastardly for that unscrupulous 
 scoundrel. 
 
 Yet, for the present at least, the girl re- 
 mained safe. The chief peril was that in which 
 Sir Hugh was placed, now that he had openly 
 defied the doctor. 
 
 On the previous evening he had been in the 
 drawing-room at Hill Street when Sir Hugh 
 had returned from interviewing the caller. By 
 his countenance and manner he at once realised 
 that the breach had been widened. 
 
 The one thought by which he was obsessed 
 was how he should save Sir Hugh from disgrace. 
 His connection with the Criminal Investigation 
 Department placed at his disposal a marvellous 
 network of sources of information, amazing as 
 they were unsuspected. He was secretly glad 
 that at last the old fellow had resolved to face 
 bankruptcy rather than go farther in that 
 strange career of crime, yet, at the same time, 
 there was serious danger for Weirmarsh was a 
 man so unscrupulous and so vindictive that the
 
 232 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 penalty of his defiance must assuredly be a se- 
 vere one. 
 
 The very presence of the doctor on the plat- 
 form of the South Eastern station at Victoria 
 that morning showed that he did not intend to 
 allow the grass to grow beneath his feet. 
 
 The novelist was still standing near the long 
 window, looking aimlessly down upon the Em- 
 bankment, with its hurrying foot-passengers and 
 whirling taxis. 
 
 ' You seem unusually thoughtful, Fether- 
 ston," remarked Trendall with some curiosity, 
 as he seated himself at the table and resumed 
 the opening of his letters which his friend's visit 
 had interrupted. " What's the matter? " 
 
 ' The fact is, I'm very much puzzled." 
 
 " About what? You're generally very suc- 
 cessful in obtaining solutions where other men 
 have failed." 
 
 ' To the problem which is greatly exercising 
 my mind just now I can obtain no solution," he 
 said in a low, intense voice. 
 
 " What is it? Can I help you? " 
 
 ' Well," he exclaimed, with some hesitation, 
 " I am still trying to discover why Harry Bel- 
 lairs died and who killed him." 
 
 ' That mystery has long ago been placed 
 by us among those which admit of no solution,
 
 Concerning the Bellairs Affair 233 
 
 my dear fellow," declared his friend. ' We did 
 our best to throw some light upon it, but all to 
 no purpose. I set the whole of our machinery 
 at work at the time days before you suspected 
 anything wrong but not a trace of the truth 
 could we find." 
 
 " But what could have been the motive, do 
 you imagine? From all accounts he was a most 
 popular young officer, without a single enemy 
 in the world." 
 
 " Jealousy," was the dark man's slow reply. 
 " My own idea is that a woman killed him." 
 
 "Why?" cried Walter quickly. "What 
 causes you to make such a suggestion?" 
 
 ' Well listen, and when I've finished you 
 can draw your own conclusions."
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 THE SILENCE OF THE MAN BARKER 
 
 " HARRY BELLAIRS was an old friend of mine," 
 Trendall went on, leaning back in his padded 
 writing-chair and turning towards where the 
 novelist was standing. " His curious end was 
 a problem which, of course, attracted you as a 
 writer of fiction. The world believed his death 
 to be due to natural causes, in view of the failure 
 of Professors Dale and Boyd, the Home Office 
 analysts, to find a trace of poison or of foul 
 play." 
 
 ' You believe, then, that he was poisoned? " 
 asked Fetherston quickly. 
 
 The other shrugged his shoulders, saying: 
 " How can that point be cleared up? There 
 was no evidence of it." 
 
 "It is curious that, though we are both so 
 intensely interested in the problem, we have 
 never before discussed it," remarked Walter. 
 ' I am so anxious to hear your views upon one 
 or two points. What, for instance, do you think 
 of Barker, the dead man's valet? " 
 
 234
 
 The Silence of the Man Barker 235 
 
 Herbert Trendall hesitated, and for a mo- 
 ment twisted his moustache. He was a marvel- 
 lously alert man, an unusually good linguist, and 
 a cosmopolitan to his finger-tips. He had been 
 a detective-sergeant in the T Division of Metro- 
 politan Police for years before his appointment 
 as director of that section. He knew more of 
 the criminal undercurrents on the Continent 
 than any living Englishman, and it was he who 
 furnished accurate information to the Surete in 
 Paris concerning the great Humbert swindle. 
 
 " Well," he said, " if I recollect aright, the 
 inquiries regarding him were not altogether 
 satisfactory. Previous to his engagement by 
 Harry he had, it seems, been valet to a man 
 named Mitchell, a horse-trainer of rather shady 
 repute." 
 
 '* Where is he now? " 
 
 " I really don't know, but I can easily find, 
 out I gave orders that he was not to be lost 
 sight of." And, scribbling a hasty memoran- 
 dum, he pressed the electric button upon the arm 
 of his chair. 
 
 His secretary, a tall, thin, deep -eyed man, 
 entered, and to him he gave the note. 
 
 * Well, let us proceed while they are looking 
 up the information," the chief went on. 
 " Harry Bellairs, as you know, was on the staff
 
 236 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 of Sir Hugh Elcombe, that dear, harmless old 
 friend of yours who inspects troops and seems to 
 do odd jobs for Whitehall. I knew Harry before 
 he went to Sandhurst; his people, who lived up 
 near Durham, were very civil to me once or 
 twice and gave me some excellent pheasant- 
 shooting. It seems that on that day in Septem- 
 ber he came up to town from Salisbury but you 
 know all the facts, of course? " 
 
 " I know all the facts as far as they were 
 related in the papers," Walter said. He did not 
 reveal the results of the close independent in- 
 quiries he had already made results which had 
 utterly astounded, and at the same time mys- 
 tified, him. 
 
 "Well," said Trendall, "what the Press 
 published was mostly fiction. Even the evidence 
 given before the coroner was utterly unreliable. 
 It was mainly given in order to mislead the jury 
 and prevent public suspicion that there had been 
 a sensational tragedy I arranged it so." 
 
 " And there had been a tragedy, no doubt? " 
 
 " Of course," declared the other, leaning both 
 elbows upon the table before him and looking 
 straight into the novelist's pale face. :< Harry 
 came up from Salisbury, the bearer of some 
 papers from Sir Hugh. He duly arrived at 
 Waterloo, discharged his duty, and went to his
 
 The Silence of the Man Barker 237 
 
 rooms in Half Moon Street. Now, according 
 to Barker's story, his master arrived home early 
 in the afternoon, and sent him out on a message 
 to Richmond. He returned a little after five, 
 when he found his master absent." 
 
 ' That was the account he gave at the in- 
 quest," remarked Fetherston. 
 
 ' Yes ; but it was not the truth. On testing 
 the man's story I discovered that at three- 
 eighteen he was in the Leicester Lounge, in 
 Leicester Square, with an ill-dressed old man, 
 who was described as being short and wearing a 
 rusty, old silk hat. They sat at a table near the 
 window drinking ginger-ale, so that the barmaid! 
 could not overhear, and held a long and confi- 
 dential chat." 
 
 " He may afterwards have gone down to 
 Richmond," his friend suggested. 
 
 " No; he remained there until past four, and 
 then went round to the Cafe Royal, where he 
 met another man, a foreigner, of about his own 
 age, believed to have been a Swiss, with whom 
 he took a cup of coffee. The man was a stranger 
 at the cafe, probably a stranger in London. 
 Barker was in the habit of doing a little betting, 
 and I believe the men he met were some of his 
 betting friends." 
 
 " Then you disbelieve the Richmond story? "
 
 238 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 " Entirely. What seems more than probable 
 is that Harry gave his man the afternoon off be- 
 cause he wished to entertain somebody clandes- 
 tinely at his rooms a woman, perhaps. Yet, 
 as far as I've been able to discover, no one in 
 Half Moon Street saw any stranger of either 
 sex go to his chambers that afternoon." 
 
 c You said that you believed the motive of 
 the crime if crime it really was was jealousy," 
 remarked Fetherston, thoughtfully rubbing his 
 shaven chin. 
 
 " And I certainly do. Harry was essentially 
 a lady's man. He was tall, and an extremely 
 handsome fellow, a thorough-going sportsman, 
 an excellent polo player, a perfect dancer, and a 
 splendid rider to hounds. Little wonder was it 
 that he was about to make a very fine match, for 
 only a month before his death he confided to me 
 in secret the fact a fact known to me alone 
 that he was engaged to pretty little Lady 
 Blanche Herbert, eldest daughter of the Earl 
 of Warsborough." 
 
 " Engaged to Lady Blanche ! " echoed the 
 novelist in surprise, for the girl in question was 
 the prettiest of that year's debutantes as well as 
 a great heiress in her own right. 
 
 ' Yes. Harry was a lucky dog, poor fellow. 
 The engagement, known only to the Warsbor-
 
 The Silence of the Man Barker 239 
 
 oughs and myself, was to have been kept secret 
 for a year. Now, it is my firm opinion, Fether- 
 ston, that some other woman, one of Harry's 
 many female friends, had got wind of it, and 
 very cleverly had her revenge." 
 
 " Upon what grounds do you suspect that? " 
 asked the other eagerly for surely the prob- 
 lem was becoming more inscrutable than any of 
 those in the remarkable romances which he 
 penned. 
 
 ' Well, my conclusions are drawn from sev- 
 eral very startling facts facts which, of course, 
 have never leaked out to the public. But before 
 I reveal them to you I'd like to hear what opin- 
 ion you've formed yourself." 
 
 " I'm convinced that Harry Bellairs met with 
 foul play, and I'm equally certain that the man 
 Barker lied in his depositions before the coroner. 
 He knows the whole story, and has been paid 
 to keep a still tongue." 
 
 ' There I entirely agree with you," Trendall 
 declared quickly; while at that moment the sec- 
 retary returned with a slip of paper attached 
 to the query which his chief had written. 
 " Ah ! " he exclaimed, glancing at the paper, " I 
 see that the fellow Barker, who was a chauffeur 
 before he entered Harry's service, has set up a 
 motor-car business in Southampton."
 
 240 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 ' You believe him to have been an accessory, 
 eh?" 
 
 ' Yes, a dupe in the hands of a clever 
 woman." 
 
 "Of what woman?" asked Walter, holding 
 his breath. 
 
 " As you know, Harry was secretary to your 
 friend Elcombe. Well, I happen to know that 
 his pretty stepdaughter, Enid Orlebar, was over 
 head and ears in love with him. My daughter 
 Ethel and she are friends, and she confided this 
 fact to Ethel only a month before the tragedy." 
 
 ' Then you actually suggest that a a cer- 
 tain woman murdered him ? " gasped Fetherston. 
 
 '* Well there is no actual proof only 
 strong suspicion! " 
 
 Walter Fetherston held his breath. Did the 
 suspicions of this man, from whom no secret 
 was safe, run in the same direction as his own? 
 
 ' There was in the evidence given before 
 the coroner a suggestion that the captain had 
 dined somewhere in secret," he said. 
 
 " I know. But we have since cleared up that 
 point. He was not given poison while he sat at 
 dinner, for we know that he dined at the Bache- 
 lors' with a man named Friend. They had a 
 hurried meal, because Friend had to catch a 
 train to the west of England."
 
 The Silence of the Man Barker 241 
 
 "And afterwards?" 
 
 " He left the club in a taxi at eight. But 
 what his movements exactly were we cannot as- 
 certain. He returned to his chambers at a quar-; 
 ter past nine in order to change his clothes and 
 go back to Salisbury, but he was almost immedi- 
 ately taken ill. Barker declares that his master 
 sent him out on an errand instantly on his return, 
 and that when he came in he found him dying." 
 
 " Did he not explain what the errand was? " 
 
 " No; he refused to say." 
 
 In that refusal Fetherston saw that the valet, 
 whatever might be his fault, was loyal to his 
 dead master and to Enid Orlebar. He had not 
 told how Bellairs had sent to Hill Street that 
 scribbled note, and how the distressed girl had 
 torn along to Half Moon Street to arrive too 
 late to speak for the last time with the man she 
 loved. Was Barker an enemy, or was he a 
 friend? 
 
 ;< That refusal arouses distinct suspicion, 
 eh?" 
 
 " Barker has very cleverly concealed some 
 important fact," replied the keen-faced man who 
 controlled that section of Scotland Yard. 
 " Bellairs, feeling deadly ill, and knowing that 
 he had fallen a victim to some enemy, sent 
 Barker out for somebody in whom to confide.
 
 242 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 The man claimed that the errand that his master 
 sent him upon was one of confidence." 
 
 " And to whom do you think he was sent? " 
 ' To a woman," was TrendalTs slow and 
 serious reply. '* To the woman who murdered 
 him!" 
 
 " But if she had poisoned him, surely he 
 would not send for her? " exclaimed Fetherston. 
 
 " At the moment he was not aware of the 
 woman's jealousy, or of the subtle means used 
 to cause his untimely end. He was unsuspicious 
 of that cruel, deadly hatred lying so deep in 
 the woman's breast. Lady Blanche, on hear- 
 ing of the death of her lover, was terribly 
 grieved, and is still abroad. She, of course, made 
 all sorts of wild allegations, but in none of them 
 did we find any basis of fact. Yet, curiously 
 enough, her views were exactly the same as my 
 own that one of poor Harry's lady friends had 
 been responsible for his fatal seizure." 
 
 ' Then, after all the inquiries you insti- 
 tuted, you were really unable to point to the 
 actual assassin? " asked Fetherston rather more 
 calmly. 
 
 " Not exactly unable unwilling, rather." 
 
 " How do you mean unwilling? You were 
 Bellairs' friend!" 
 
 " Yes, I was. He was one of the best and
 
 The Silence of the Man Barker 243 
 
 most noble fellows who ever wore the King's 
 uniform, and he died by the treacherous hand 
 of a jealous woman a clever woman who had 
 paid Barker to maintain silence." 
 
 " But, if the dying man wished to make a 
 statement, he surely would not have sent for the 
 very person by whose hand he had fallen," 
 Fetherston protested. " Surely that is not a 
 logical conclusion! " 
 
 " Bellairs was not certain that his sudden 
 seizure was not due to something he had eaten 
 at the club remember he was not certain that 
 her hand had administered the fatal drug," re- 
 plied Trendall. A hard, serious expression 
 rested upon his face. " He had, no doubt, seen 
 her between the moment when he left the Bache- 
 lors' and his arrival, a little over an hour after- 
 wards, at Half Moon Street where, or how, 
 we know not. Perhaps he drove to her house, 
 and there, at her invitation, drank something. 
 Yet, however it happened, the result was the 
 same; she killed him, even though she was the 
 first friend to whom he sent in his distress 
 killed him because she had somehow learnt of 
 his secret engagement to Lady Blanche Her- 
 bert." 
 
 " Yours is certainly a remarkable theory," 
 admitted Walter Fetherston. "May I ask the
 
 244 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 name of the woman to whom you refer?" 
 
 " Yes ; she was the woman who loved him so 
 passionately," replied Trendall " Enid Or- 
 lebar." 
 
 " Then you really suspect her? " asked Feth- 
 erston breathlessly. 
 
 " Only as far as certain facts are concerned; 
 and that since Harry's death she has been un- 
 ceasingly interested in the career of the man 
 Barker." 
 
 "Are you quite certain of this?" gasped 
 Fetherston. 
 
 "Quite; it is proved beyond the shadow of 
 a doubt." 
 
 " Then Enid Orlebar killed him? " 
 
 !C That if she actually did not kill him with 
 her own hand, she at least knew well who did," 
 was the other's cold, hard reply. " She killed 
 him for two reasons; first, because by poor 
 Harry's death she prevented the exposure of 
 some great secret! " 
 
 Walter Fetherston made no reply. 
 
 Those inquiries, instituted by Scotland 
 Yard, had resulted in exactly the same theory 
 as his own independent efforts that Harry Bel- 
 lairs had been secretly done to death by the 
 woman, who, upon her own admission to him, 
 had been summoned to the young officer's side.
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 WHAT THE DEAD MAN UEFT 
 
 IT was news to Fetherston that Bellairs had 
 dined at his club on that fateful night. 
 
 He had believed that Enid had dined with 
 him. He had proved beyond all doubt that she 
 had been to his rooms that afternoon during 
 Barker's absence. That feather from the boa, 
 and the perfume, were sufficient evidence of her 
 visit. 
 
 Yet why had Barker remained in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Piccadilly Circus if sent by his mas- 
 ter with a message to Richmond? He could not 
 doubt a single word that Trendall had told him, 
 for the latter's information was beyond question. 
 Well he knew with what care and cunning such 
 an inquiry would have been made, and how every 
 point would have been proved before being re- 
 ported to that ever active man who was head 
 of that Department of the Home Office that 
 never sleeps. 
 
 "What secret do you suggest might have 
 been divulged?" he asked at last after a long 
 pause. 
 
 245
 
 246 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 The big room the Room of Secrets was 
 silent, for the double windows prevented the 
 noise of the traffic and the " honk " of the taxi 
 horns from penetrating there. Only the low 
 ticking of the clock broke the quiet. 
 
 " I scarcely have any suggestion to offer in 
 that direction," was Trendall's slow reply. 
 ' That feature of the affair still remains a 
 mystery." 
 
 " But cannot this man Barker be induced 
 to make some statement ? " he queried. 
 
 " He will scarcely betray the woman to whom 
 he owes his present prosperity, for he is pros- 
 perous and has a snug little balance at his bank. 
 Besides, even though we took the matter in hand, 
 what could we do? There is no evidence against 
 him or against the woman. The farcical pro- 
 ceedings in the coroner's court had tied their 
 hands." 
 
 " An open verdict was returned? " 
 
 ' Yes, at our suggestion. But Professors 
 Dale and Boyd failed to find any traces of 
 poison or of foul play." 
 
 " And yet there was foul play that is abso- 
 lutely certain!" declared the novelist. 
 
 " Unfortunately, yes. Poor Bellairs was a 
 brilliant and promising officer, a man destined 
 to make a distinct mark in the world. It was
 
 What the Dead Man Left 247 
 
 pity, perhaps, that he was such a lady-killer." 
 " A pity that he fell victim to what was evi- 
 dently a clever plot, and yet yet I cannot 
 bring myself to believe that your surmise can 
 be actually correct. He surely would never have 
 sent for the very person who was his enemy and 
 who had plotted to kill him it doesn't seem 
 feasible, does it?" 
 
 " Quite as feasible as any of the strange and 
 crooked circumstances which one finds every day 
 in life's undercurrents," was the quiet rejoinder. 
 " Remember, he was very fond of her fasci- 
 nated by her remarkable beauty." 
 
 "But he was engaged to Lady Blanche?" 
 " He intended to marry her, probably for 
 wealth and position. The woman a man of 
 Harry's stamp marries is seldom, if ever, the 
 woman he loves," added the chief with a some- 
 what cynical smile, for he was essentially a man 
 of the world. 
 
 " But what secret could Enid Orlebar desire 
 to hide?" exclaimed Fetherston wonderingly. 
 " If he loved her, he certainly would never have 
 threatened exposure." 
 
 " My dear fellow, I've told you briefly my 
 own theory a theory formed upon all the evi- 
 dence I could collect," replied the tall, dark- 
 eyed man, as he thrust his hands deeply into his
 
 248 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 trousers pockets and looked straight into the 
 eyes of his friend. 
 
 " If you are so certain that Enid Orlebar is 
 implicated in the affair, if not the actual assassin, 
 why don't you interrogate her?" asked Walter 
 boldly. 
 
 ' Well well, to tell the truth, our inquiries 
 are not yet complete. When they are, we may 
 be in a better position we probably shall be 
 to put to her certain pointed questions. But," 
 he added quickly, " perhaps I ought not to say 
 this, for I know she is a friend of yours." 
 
 ' What you tell me is in confidence, as al- 
 ways, Trendall," he replied quickly. " I knew 
 long ago that Enid was deeply attached to Bel- 
 lairs. But much that you have just told me is 
 entirely fresh to me. I must find Barker and 
 question him." 
 
 " I don't think I'd do that. Wait until we 
 have completed our inquiries," urged the other. 
 " If Bellairs was killed in so secret and scientific 
 a manner that no trace was left, he was killed 
 with a cunning and craftiness which betrays a 
 jealous woman rather than a man. Besides, 
 there are other facts we have gathered which 
 go further to prove that Enid Orlebar is the 
 actual culprit." 
 
 " What are they? Tell me, Trendall."
 
 What the Dead Man Left 249 
 
 " No, my dear chap ; you are the lady's friend 
 it is really unfair to ask me," he protested. 
 * Where the usual mysteries are concerned, I'm 
 always open and above-board with you. But in 
 private investigations like this you must allow 
 me to retain certain knowledge to myself." 
 
 " But I beg of you to tell me everything," 
 demanded the other. " I have taken an intense 
 interest in the matter, as you have, even though 
 my motive has been of an entirely different 
 character." 
 
 ' You have no suspicion that Bellairs was in 
 possession of any great secret a secret which it 
 was to Miss Orlebar's advantage should be 
 kept?" 
 
 " No," was the novelist's prompt response. 
 " But I can't see the drift of your question," 
 he added. 
 
 " Well," replied the keen, alert man, who, 
 again seated in his writing-chair, bent slightly 
 towards his visitor, " well, as you've asked me 
 to reveal all I know, Fetherston, I will do so, 
 even though I feel some reluctance, in face of the 
 fact that Miss Orlebar is your friend." 
 
 " That makes no difference," declared the 
 other firmly. " I am anxious to clear up the 
 mystery of Bellairs' death." 
 
 " Then I think that you need seek no farther
 
 250 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 for the correct solution," replied Trendall 
 quietly, looking into the other's pale coun- 
 tenance. ' Your lady friend killed him in or- 
 der to preserve her own secret." 
 
 "But what was her secret? " 
 ' We have that yet to establish. It must 
 have been a serious one for her to close his lips 
 in such a manner." 
 
 " But they were good friends/* declared 
 Fetherston. " He surely had not threatened to 
 expose her? " 
 
 " I do not think he had. My own belief is 
 that she became madly jealous of Lady Blanche, 
 and at the same time, fearing the exposure of 
 her secret to the woman to whom her lover had 
 become engaged, she took the subtle means of 
 
 silencing him. Besides " And he paused 
 
 without concluding his sentence. 
 
 "Besides what?" 
 
 " From the first you suspected Sir Hugh's 
 stepdaughter, eh?" 
 
 Fetherston hesitated. Then afterwards he 
 nodded slowly in the affirmative. 
 
 " Yes," went on Trendall, " I knew all along 
 that you were suspicious. You made a certain 
 remarkable discovery, eh, Fetherston? " 
 
 The novelist started. At what did his friend 
 hint? Was it possible that the inquiries had led
 
 What the Dead Man Left 251 
 
 to a suspicion of Sir Hugh's criminal conduct? 
 The very thought appalled him. 
 
 " I well, in the course of the inquiries I 
 made I found that the lady in question was 
 greatly attached to the dead man," replied Feth- 
 erston rather lamely. 
 
 Trendall smiled. " It was to Enid Orlebar 
 that Harry sent when he felt his fatal seizure. 
 Instead of sending for a doctor, he sent Barker 
 to her, and she at once flew to his side, but, alas ! 
 too late to remedy the harm she had already 
 caused. When she arrived he was dead ! " 
 
 Fetherston was silent. He saw that the in- 
 quiries made by the Criminal Investigation De- 
 partment had led to exactly the same conclusion 
 that he himself had formed. 
 
 "This is a most distressing thought that 
 Enid Orlebar is a murderess ! " he declared after 
 a moment's pause. 
 
 " It is I admit. Yet we cannot close our 
 eyes to such outstanding facts, my dear chap. 
 Depend upon it that there is something behind 
 the poor fellow's death of which we have no 
 knowledge. In his death your friend Miss Orle- 
 bar sought safety. The letter he wrote to her 
 a week before his assassination is sufficient evi- 
 dence of that."
 
 252 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 " A letter! " gasped Fetherston. " Is there 
 one in existence?" 
 
 ' Yes ; it is in our possession ; it reveals the 
 existence of the secret." 
 
 "But what was its nature?" cried Fether- 
 ston in dismay. 'What terrible secret could 
 there possibly be that could only be preserved 
 by Bellairs' silence?" 
 
 ' That's just the puzzle we have to solve 
 just the very point which has mystified us all 
 along." 
 
 And then he turned to his correspondence 
 again, opening his letters one after the other- 
 letters which, addressed to a box at the General 
 Post Office in the City, contained secret infor- 
 mation from various unsuspected quarters at 
 home and abroad. 
 
 Suddenly, in order to change the topic of 
 conversation, which he knew was painful to Wal- 
 ter Fetherston, he mentioned the excellence of 
 the opera at Covent Garden on the previous 
 night. And afterwards he referred to an article 
 in that day's paper which dealt with the idea of 
 obtaining exclusive political intelligence through 
 spirit-bureaux. Then, speaking of the labour 
 unrest, Trendall pronounced his opinion as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 " The whole situation would be ludicrous
 
 What the Dead Man Left 253 
 
 were it not urged so persistently as to be a 
 menace not so much in this country, where we 
 know too well the temperaments of its sponsors, 
 but abroad, where public opinion, imperfectly 
 instructed, may imagine it represents a serious 
 national feeling. The continuance of it is an 
 intolerable negation of civilisation; it is sup- 
 ported by no public men of credit; it- has been 
 disproved again and again. Ridicule may be left 
 to give the menace the coup de grace! And 
 this," he laughed, " in face of what you and I 
 know, eh ? Ah ! how long will the British public 
 be lulled to sleep by anonymous scribblers? " 
 
 " One day they'll have a rude awakening," 
 declared Fetherston, still thinking, however, of 
 that letter of the dead man to Enid. " I won- 
 der," he added, " I wonder who inspires these 
 denials? We know, of course, that each time 
 anything against enemy interests appears in a 
 certain section of the Press there arises a ready 
 army of letter-writers who rush into print and 
 append their names to assurances that the enemy 
 is nowadays our best friend. Those * patriotic 
 Englishmen ' are, many of them, in high posi- 
 tions. 
 
 " When responsible papers wilfully mislead 
 the public, what can be expected? " Walter went 
 on. " But," he added after a pause, " we did not
 
 254 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 arrive at any definite conclusion regarding the 
 tragic death of Bellairs. What about that let- 
 ter of his? " 
 
 Trendall was thoughtful for a few minutes. 
 
 " My conclusion the only one that can be 
 formed," he answered at last, disregarding his 
 friend's question " is that Enid Orlebar is the 
 guilty person; and before long I hope to be in 
 possession of that secret which she strove by her 
 crime to suppress a secret which I feel con- 
 vinced we shall discover to be one of an amazing 
 character." 
 
 Walter stood motionless as a statue. 
 
 Surely Bellairs had not died by Enid's hand!
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 
 AT THE CAFE DE PARIS 
 
 IT was in the early days of January damp and 
 
 foggy in England. 
 
 Walter Fetherston sat idling on the terrasse 
 
 of the Cafe de Paris in Monte Carlo sipping a 
 
 " mazagran," basking in the afternoon sunshine, 
 
 and listening to the music of the Rumanian 
 
 Orchestra. 
 
 Around him everywhere was the gay cos- 
 mopolitan world of the tables that giddy little 
 after-the-war financier and profiteer world which 
 amuses itself on the Cote d'Azur, and in which 
 he was such a well-known figure. 
 
 So many successive seasons had he passed 
 there before 1914 that across at the rooms the 
 attendants and croupiers knew him as an habi- 
 tue, and he was always granted the carte blanche 
 
 the white card of the professional gambler. 
 With nearly half the people he met he had a 
 nodding acquaintance, for friendships are 
 easily formed over the tapis vert and as easily 
 dropped. 
 
 Preferring the fresher air of Nice, he made 
 
 255
 
 256 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 his headquarters at the Hotel Royal on the 
 world-famed promenade, and came over to 
 " Monte " daily by the rapide. 
 
 Much had occurred since that autumn morn- 
 ing when he had stood with Herbert Trendall 
 in the big room at New Scotland Yard, much 
 that had puzzled him, much that had held him 
 in fear lest the ghastly truth concerning Sir 
 Hugh should be revealed. 
 
 His own activity had been, perhaps, un- 
 paralleled. The strain of such constant travel 
 and continual excitement would have broken 
 most men ; but he possessed an iron constitution, 
 and though he spent weeks on end in trains and 
 steamboats, it never affected him in the least. 
 He could snatch sleep at any time, and he could 
 write anywhere. 
 
 Whether or not Enid had guessed the rea- 
 son of his urgent appeal to her not to pass 
 through France, she had nevertheless managed 
 to excuse herself; but a week after Mrs. Cald- 
 well's departure she had travelled alone by the 
 Harwich- Antwerp route, evidently much to the 
 annoyance of the alert doctor of Pimlico. 
 
 Walter had impressed upon her the desir- 
 ability of not entering France without, how- 
 ever, giving any plain reason. He left her to 
 guess.
 
 At the Cafe de Paris 257 
 
 Through secret sources in Paris he had learnt 
 how poor Paul Le Pontois was still awaiting 
 trial. In order not to excite public opinion, the 
 matter was being kept secret by the French 
 authorities, and it had been decided that the in- 
 quiry should be held with closed doors. 
 
 A week after his arrest the French police 
 received additional evidence against him in the 
 form of a cryptic telegram addressed to the Cha- 
 teau, an infamous and easily deciphered mes- 
 sage which, no doubt, had been sent with the 
 distinct purpose of strengthening the amazing 
 charge against him. He protested entire ig- 
 norance of the sender and of the meaning of the 
 message, but his accusers would not accept any 
 disclaimer. So cleverly, indeed, had the mes- 
 sage been worded that at the Surete it was be- 
 lieved to refer to the price he had received for 
 certain bundles of spurious notes. 
 
 Without a doubt the scandalous telegram 
 had been sent at Weirmarsh's instigation by one 
 of his friends in order to influence the authori- 
 ties in Paris. 
 
 So far as the doctor was concerned he was 
 ever active in receiving reports from his cosmo- 
 politan friends abroad. But since his quarrel 
 with Sir Hugh he had ceased to visit Hill
 
 258 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 Street, and had, apparently, dropped the old 
 general's acquaintance. 
 
 Sir Hugh was congratulating himself at the 
 easy solution of the difficulty, but Walter, seat- 
 ed at that little marble-topped table in the win- 
 ter sunshine, knowing Weirmarsh's character, 
 remained in daily apprehension. 
 
 The exciting life he led in assisting to watch 
 those whom Scotland Yard suspected was as 
 nothing compared with the constant fear of the 
 unmasking of Sir Hugh Elcombe. Doctor 
 Weirmarsh was an enemy, and a formidable one. 
 
 The mystery concerning the death of Bel- 
 lairs had increased rather than diminished. Each 
 step he had taken in the inquiry only plunged 
 him deeper and deeper into an inscrutable prob- 
 lem. He had devoted weeks to endeavouring to 
 solve the mystery, but it remained, alas! inscru- 
 table. 
 
 Enid and Mrs. Caldwell had altered their 
 plans, and had gone to Sicily instead of to 
 Egypt, first visiting Palermo and Syracuse, and 
 were at the moment staying at the popular "San 
 Domenico" at Taormina, amid that gem of 
 Mediterranean scenery. Sir Hugh and his wife, 
 much upset by Blanche's sudden arrival in Lon- 
 don, had not gone abroad that winter, but had
 
 At the Cafe de Paris 259 
 
 remained at Hill Street to comfort Paul's wife 
 and child. 
 
 As for Walter, he had of late been wander- 
 ing far afiejd, in Petrograd, Geneva, Rome, 
 Florence, Malaga, and for the past week had 
 been at Monte Carlo. He was not there wholly 
 for pleasure, for, if the truth be told, there were 
 seated at the farther end of the terrasse a smart- 
 ly dressed man and a woman in whom he had 
 for the past month been taking a very keen in- 
 terest. 
 
 This pair, of Swiss nationality, he had 
 watched in half a dozen Continental cities, grad- 
 ually establishing his suspicions as to their real 
 occupation. 
 
 They had come to Monte Carlo for neither 
 health nor pleasure, but in order to meet a grey- 
 haired man in spectacles, whom they received 
 twice in private at the Metropole, where they 
 were staying. 
 
 The Englishman had first seen them sitting 
 together one evening at one of the marble- 
 topped tables at the Cafe Royal in Regent 
 Street, while he had been idly playing a game of 
 dominoes at the next table with an American 
 friend. The face of the man was to him some- 
 how familiar. He felt that he had seen it some- 
 where, but whether in a photograph in his big
 
 260 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 album down at Idsworth or in the flesh he could 
 not decide. 
 
 Yet from that moment he had hardly lost 
 sight of them. With that astuteness which was 
 Fetherston's chief characteristic, he had watched 
 vigilantly and ,patiently, establishing the fact 
 that the pair were in England for some sinister 
 purpose. His powers were little short of mar- 
 vellous. He really seemed, as Trendall once 
 put it, to scent the presence of criminals as pigs 
 scent truffles. 
 
 They suddenly left the Midland Hotel at St. 
 Pancras, where they were staying, and crossed 
 the Channel. But the same boat carried Wal- 
 ter Fetherston, who took infinite care not to ob- 
 trude himself upon their attention. 
 
 Monte Carlo, being in the principality of 
 Monaco, and being peopled by the most cosmo- 
 politan crowd in the whole world, is in winter 
 the recognised meeting-place of chevaliers d'in- 
 dustrie and those who finance and control great 
 crimes. 
 
 In the big atrium of those stifling rooms 
 many an assassin has met his hirer, and in many 
 of those fine hotels have bribes been handed over 
 to those who will do " dirty work." It is the 
 European exchange of criminality, for both 
 sexes know it to be a safe place where they may
 
 At the Cafe de Paris 261 
 
 "accidentally" meet the person controlling 
 them. 
 
 It is safe to say that in every code used by 
 the criminal plotters of every country in Europe 
 there is a cryptic word which signifies a meet- 
 ing at Monte Carlo. For that reason was Wal- 
 ter Fetherston much given to idling on the sun- 
 ny terrasse of the cafe at a point where he could 
 see every person who ascended or descended 
 that flight of red-carpeted stairs which gives en- 
 trance to the rooms. 
 
 The pair whom he was engaged in watching 
 had been playing at roulette with five-franc 
 pieces, and the woman was now counting her 
 gains and laughing gaily with her husband as 
 she slowly sipped her tea flavoured with orange- 
 flower water. They were in ignorance of the 
 presence of that lynx-eyed man in grey flannels 
 and straw hat who smoked his cigarette leisurely 
 and appeared to be so intensely bored. 
 
 No second glance at Fetherston was needed 
 to ascertain that he was a most thorough-going 
 cosmopolitan. He usually wore his pale-grey 
 felt hat at a slight angle, and had the air of the 
 easy-going adventurer, debonair and unscrupu- 
 lous. But in his case his appearance was not a 
 true index to his character, for in reality he was 
 a steady, hard-headed, intelligent man, the very
 
 262 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 soul of honour, and, above all, a man of intense 
 patriotism an Englishman to the backbone. 
 Still, he cultivated his easy-going cosmopolitan- 
 ism to pose as a careless adventurer. 
 
 Presently the pair rose, and, crossing the 
 palm-lined place, entered the casino ; while Wal- 
 ter, finishing his "mazagran," lit a fresh cig- 
 arette, and took a turn along the front of the ca- 
 sino in order to watch the pigeon-shooting. 
 
 The winter sun was sinking into the tideless 
 sea in all its gold-and-orange glory as he stood 
 leaning over the stone balustrade watching the 
 splendid marksmanship of one of the crack shots 
 of Europe. He waited until the contest had 
 ended, then he descended and took the rapide 
 back to Nice for dinner. 
 
 At nine o'clock he returned to Monte Carlo, 
 and again ascended the station lift, as was his 
 habit, for a stroll through the rooms and a chat 
 and drink with one or other of his many friends. 
 He looked everywhere for the Swiss pair in 
 whom he was so interested, but in vain. Prob- 
 ably they had gone over to Nice to spend the 
 evening, he thought. But as the night wore on 
 and they did not return by the midnight train 
 the arrival of which he watched he strolled 
 back to the Metropole and inquired for them cvt 
 the bureau of the hotel.
 
 At the Cafe de Paris 263 
 
 " M'sieur and Madame Granier left by the 
 Mediterranean express for Paris at seven-fif- 
 teen this evening," replied the clerk, who knew 
 Walter very well. 
 
 ' What address did they leave?" he in- 
 quired, annoyed at the neat manner in which 
 they had escaped his vigilance. 
 
 ' They left no address, m'sieur. They re- 
 ceived a telegram just after six o'clock recalling 
 them to Paris immediately. Fortunately, there 
 was one two-berth compartment vacant on the 
 train." 
 
 Walter turned away full of chagrin. He 
 had been foolish to lose sight of them. His only 
 course was to return to Nice, pack his traps, 
 and follow to Paris in the ordinary rapide at 
 eight o'clock next morning. And this was the 
 course he pursued. 
 
 But Paris is a big* place, and though he 
 searched for two whole weeks, going hither and 
 thither to all places where the foreign visitors 
 mostly congregate, he saw nothing of the in- 
 teresting pair. Therefore, full of disappoint- 
 ment, he crossed one afternoon to Folkestone, 
 and that night again found himself in his dingy 
 chambers in Holies Street. 
 
 Next day he called upon Sir Hugh, and 
 found him in much better spirits. Lady El-
 
 264 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 combe told him that Enid had written express- 
 ing herself delighted with her season in Sicily, 
 and saying that both she and Mrs. Caldwell were 
 very pleased that they had adopted his sugges- 
 tion of going there instead of to overcrowded 
 Cairo. 
 
 As he sat with Sir Hugh and his wife in that 
 pretty drawing-room he knew so well the old 
 general suddenly said: "I suppose, Fether- 
 ston, you are still taking as keen an interest in 
 the latest mysteries of crime eh? " 
 
 * Yes, Sir Hugh. As you know, I've writ- 
 ten a good deal upon the subject." 
 
 " I've read a good many of your books and 
 articles, of course," exclaimed the old officer. 
 " Upon many points I entirely agree with you," 
 he said. ' There is a curious case in the papers 
 to-day. Have you seen it? A young girl found 
 mysteriously shot dead near Hitchin." 
 
 :< No, I haven't," was Walter's reply. He 
 was not at all interested. He was thinking of 
 something of far greater interest.
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 WHICH IS " PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL " 
 
 AT eleven o'clock next morning Fetherston 
 stood in Trendall's room at Scotland Yard re- 
 porting to him the suspicious movements of 
 Monsieur and Madame Granier. 
 
 His friend leaned back in his padded chair 
 listening while the keen-faced man in pince-nez 
 related all the facts, and in doing so showed how 
 shrewd and astute he had been. 
 
 ' Then they are just what we thought," re- 
 marked the chief. 
 
 ' Without a doubt. In Monte Carlo they 
 received further instructions from somebody. 
 They went to Paris, and there I lost them." 
 
 Trendall smiled, for he saw how annoyed his 
 friend was at their escape. 
 
 ' Well, you certainly clung on to them," he 
 said. ' When you first told me your suspicions 
 I confess I was inclined to disagree with you. 
 You merely met them casually in Regent Street. 
 What made you suspicious?" 
 
 " One very important incident Weirmarsh 
 
 265
 
 266 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 came in with another man, and, in passing, nod- 
 ded to Granier. That set me thinking." 
 
 " But you do not know of any actual deal- 
 ings with the doctor? " 
 
 " I know of none," replied Walter. " Still, 
 I'm very sick that, after all my pains, they 
 should have escaped to Paris so suddenly." 
 
 " Never mind," said Trendall. " If they are 
 what we suspect we shall pick them up again 
 before long, no doubt. Now look here," he add- 
 ed. "Read that! It's just come in. As you 
 know, any foreigner who takes a house in cer- 
 tain districts nowadays is reported to us by the 
 local police." 
 
 Fetherston took the big sheet of blue official 
 
 paper which the police official handed to him, 
 
 ' and found that it was the copy of a confidential 
 
 report made by the Superintendent of Police at 
 
 Maldon, in Essex, and read as follows: 
 
 " I, William Warden, Superintendent of 
 Police for the Borough of Maldon, desire to re- 
 port to the Commissioner of Metropolitan Po- 
 lice the following statement from Sergeant S. 
 Deacon, Essex Constabulary, stationed at 
 Southminster, which is as below: 
 
 ' On Friday, the thirteenth of September 
 last, a gentleman, evidently a foreigner, was 
 sent by Messrs. Hare and James, estate agents,
 
 ;< Private and Confidential " 267 
 
 of Maiden, to view the house known as The 
 Yews, at Asheldham, in the vicinity of South- 
 minster, and agreed to take it for three years 
 in order to start a poultry farm. The tenant en- 
 tered into possession a week later, when one van- 
 load of furniture arrived from London. Two 
 days later three other vanloads arrived late in 
 the evening, and were unpacked in the stable- 
 yard at dawn. The tenant, whose name is Bai- 
 ley but whose letters come addressed " Baily," 
 and are mostly from Belgium lived there alone 
 for a fortnight, and was afterwards joined by 
 a foreign man-servant named Pietro, who is 
 believed to be an Italian. Though more than 
 three months have elapsed, and I have kept ob- 
 servation upon the house a large one, stand- 
 ing in its own grounds I have seen no sign of 
 poultry farming, and therefore deem it a matter 
 for a report. SAMUEL DEACON, Sergeant, Es- 
 sex Constabulary/ ' 
 
 " Curious ! " remarked Walter, when he had 
 finished reading it. 
 
 "Yes," said Trendall. "There may be 
 nothing in it." 
 
 " It should be inquired into ! " declared Wal- 
 ter. " I'll take Summers and go down there to 
 have a look round, if you like." 
 
 " I wish you would," said the chief. " I'll
 
 268 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 'phone Summers to meet you at Liverpool 
 Street Station," he added, turning 1 to the rail- 
 way guide. " There's a train at one forty-five. 
 Will that suit you?" 
 
 * Yes. Tell him to meet me at Liverpool 
 Street and we'll see who this * Mr. Baily ' real- 
 ly is." 
 
 When, shortly after half-past one, the nov- 
 elist walked on to the platform at Liverpool 
 Street he was approached by a narrow-faced, 
 middle-aged man in a blue serge suit who pre- 
 sented the appearance of a ship's engineer on 
 leave. 
 
 As they sat together in a first-class compart- 
 ment Fetherston explained to his friend the re- 
 port made by the police officer at Southminster 
 the next station, to Burnham-on- Crouch 
 whereupon Summers remarked : :< The doctor 
 has been down this way once or twice of late. I 
 wonder if he goes to pay this Mr. Baily, or Bai- 
 ley, a visit? " 
 
 "Perhaps," laughed Walter. "We shall 
 see." 
 
 The railway ended at Southminster, but on 
 alighting they had little difficulty in finding the 
 small police station, where the local sergeant of 
 police awaited them, having been warned by 
 telephone.
 
 ' Private and Confidential " 269 
 
 ;< Well, gentlemen," said the red-faced man, 
 spreading his big hands on his knees as they sat 
 together in a back room, " Mr. Bailey ain't at 
 home just now. He's away a lot. The house 
 is a big one not too big for the four vanloads 
 of furniture wot came down from London." 
 
 " Has he made any friends in the district, 
 do you know?" 
 
 " No, not exactly. 'E often goes and 'as a 
 drink at the Bridgewick Arms at Burnham, close 
 by the coastguard station." 
 
 Walter exchanged a meaning glance with 
 his assistant. 
 
 "Does he receive any visitors?" 
 
 ' Very few he's away such a lot. A wom- 
 an comes down to see him sometimes his sis- 
 ter, they say she is." 
 
 " What kind of a woman? " 
 
 " Oh, she's a lady about thirty-five beauti- 
 fully dressed always. She generally comes in a 
 dark-green motor-car, which she drives herself. 
 She was a lady driver during the war." 
 
 " Do you know her name? " 
 
 " Miss Bailey. She's a foreigner, of course." 
 
 "Any other visitors?" asked Fetherston, in 
 his quick, impetuous way, as he polished his 
 pince-nez. 
 
 " One day, very soon after Mr. Bailey took
 
 270 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 the house, I was on duty at Southminster Sta- 
 tion in the forenoon, and a gentleman and lady 
 arrived and asked how far it was to The Yews, 
 at Asheldham. I directed them the way to walk 
 over by Newmoor and across the brook. Then 
 I slipped 'ome, got into plain clothes, and went 
 along after them by the footpath." 
 
 " Why did you do that? " asked Summers. 
 
 " Because I wanted to find out something 
 about this foreigner's visitors. I read at head- 
 quarters at Maldon the new instructions about 
 reporting all foreigners who took houses, and I 
 wanted to " 
 
 ' To show that you were on the alert, eh, 
 Deacon?" laughed the novelist good-humoured- 
 ly, and he lit a cigarette. 
 
 " That's so, sir," replied the big, red-faced 
 man. ' Well, I took a short cut over to The 
 Yews, and got there ten minutes before they did. 
 I hid in the hedge on the north side of the house, 
 and saw that as soon as they walked up the drive 
 Mr. Bailey rushed out to welcome them. The 
 lady seemed very nervous, I thought. I know 
 she was an English lady, because she spoke to 
 me at the station." 
 
 * What were they like? " inquired Summers. 
 " Describe both of them." 
 
 " Well, the man, as far as I can recollect,
 
 * Private and Confidential " 271 
 
 was about fifty or so, grey-faced, dark-eyed, 
 wearin' a heavy overcoat with astrachan collar 
 and cuffs. He had light grey suede gloves, and 
 carried a gold-mounted malacca cane with a 
 curved handle. The woman was quite young 
 not more'n twenty, I should think and very 
 good-lookin'. She wore a neat tailor-made dress 
 of brown cloth, and a small black velvet hat with 
 a big gold buckle. She had a greyish fur around 
 her neck, with a muff to match, and carried a 
 small, dark green leather bag." 
 
 Walter stood staring at the speaker. The 
 description was exactly that of Weirmarsh and 
 Enid Orlebar. The doctor often wore an as- 
 trachan-trimmed overcoat, while both dress and 
 hat were the same which Enid had worn three 
 months ago! 
 
 He made a few quick inquiries of the red- 
 faced sergeant, but the man's replies only served 
 to convince him that Enid had actually been a 
 visitor at the mysterious house. 
 
 "You did not discover their names?" 
 
 " The young lady addressed her companion 
 as * Doctor.' That's all I know," was the offi- 
 cer's reply. " For that reason I was rather in- 
 clined to think that I was on the wrong scent. 
 The man was perhaps, after all, only a doctor 
 who had come down to see his patient."
 
 272 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 " Perhaps so," remarked Walter mechani- 
 cally. ' You say Mr. Bailey is not at home to- 
 day, so we'll just run over and have a look 
 round. You'd better come with us, sergeant." 
 ' Very well, sir. But I 'ear as how Mr. Bai- 
 ley is comin' home this evenin'. I met Pietro in 
 the Railway Inn at Southminster the night be- 
 fore last, and casually asked when his master 
 was comin' home, as I wanted to see 'im for a 
 subscription for our police concert, and 'e told 
 me that the signore that's what 'e called him 
 was comin' home to-night." 
 
 " Good ! Then, after a look round the place, 
 we hope to have the pleasure of seeing this mys- 
 terious foreigner who comes here to the Dengie 
 Marshes to make a living out of fowl-keeping." 
 And Walter smiled meaningly at his compan- 
 ion. 
 
 Ten minutes later, after the sergeant had 
 changed into plain clothes, the trio set out along 
 the flat, muddy road for Asheldham. 
 
 But as they were walking together, after 
 passing Northend, a curious thing happened. 
 
 Summers started back suddenly and nudged 
 the novelist's arm without a word. 
 
 Fetherston, looking in the direction indicat- 
 ed, halted, utterly staggered by what met his 
 gaze.
 
 ' Private and Confidential " 273 
 
 It was inexplicable incredible! He looked 
 again, scarcely believing his own eyes, for what 
 he saw made plain a ghastly truth. 
 
 He stood rigid, staring straight before him. 
 
 Was it possible that at last he was actually 
 within measurable distance of the solution of 
 the mystery?
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 THE RESULT OF INVESTIGATION 
 
 As the expectant trio had come round the bend 
 in the road they saw in front of them, walking 
 alone, a young lady in a short tweed suit with 
 hat to match. 
 
 The gown was of a peculiar shade of grey, 
 and by her easy, swinging gait and the grace- 
 ful carriage of her head Walter Fetherston in- 
 stantly recognised that there before him, all un- 
 conscious of his presence, was the girl he be- 
 lieved to be still in Sicily Enid Orlebar ! 
 
 He looked again, to satisfy himself that he 
 was not mistaken. Then, drawing back, lest her 
 attention should be attracted by their footsteps, 
 he motioned to his companions to retreat around 
 the bend and thus out of her sight. 
 
 " Now," he said, addressing them, " there is 
 some deep mystery here. That lady must not 
 know we are here." 
 
 ' You've recognised her, sir? " asked Sum- 
 mers, who had on several previous occasions as- 
 sisted him. 
 
 274
 
 The Result of Investigation 275 
 
 ' Yes," was the novelist's hard reply. " She 
 is here with some mysterious object. You 
 mustn't approach The Yews till dark." 
 
 " Mr. Bailey will then be at home, sir," re- 
 marked the sergeant. " I thought you wished to 
 explore the place before he arrived?" 
 
 Walter paused. He saw that Enid could 
 not be on her way to visit Bailey, if he were not 
 at home. So he suggested that Summers, whom 
 she did not know, should go forward and watch 
 her movements, while he and the sergeant should 
 proceed to the house of suspicion. 
 
 Arranging to meet later, the officer from 
 Scotland Yard lit his pipe and strolled quickly 
 forward around the bend to follow the girl in 
 grey, while the other two halted to allow them 
 to get on ahead. 
 
 " Have you ever seen that lady down here 
 before, sergeant? " asked Walter presently. 
 
 " Yes, sir. If I don't make a mistake, it is 
 the same lady who asked me the way to The, 
 Yews soon after Mr. Bailey took the house the 
 lady who came with the man whom she addressed 
 as 'Doctor'!" 
 
 " Are you quite certain of this? " 
 
 " Not quite certain. She was dressed dif- 
 ferently, in brown with a different hat and a 
 veil."
 
 276 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 " They came only on that one occasion, 
 eh?" 
 
 " Only that once, sir." 
 
 " But why, I wonder, is she going to The 
 Yews? Pietro, you say, went up to London 
 this morning? " 
 
 ' Yes, sir, by the nine-five. And the house 
 is locked up she's evidently unaware of that." 
 
 " No doubt. She'll go there, and, finding 
 nobody at home, turn away disappointed. She 
 must not see us." 
 
 ' We'll take good care of that, sir," laughed 
 the local sergeant breezily, as he left his com- 
 panion's side and crossed the road so that he 
 could see the bend. "Why!" he exclaimed, 
 " she ain't goin' to Asheldham after all! She's 
 taken the footpath to the left that leads into 
 Steeple! Evidently she knows the road! " 
 
 " Then we are free to go straight along to 
 The Yews, eh? She's making a call in the vi- 
 cinity. I wonder where she's going? " 
 
 ' Your friend will ascertain that," said the 
 sergeant. " Let's get along to The Yews and 
 'ave a peep round." 
 
 Therefore the pair, now that Enid was suf- 
 ficiently far ahead along a footpath which led 
 under a high, bare hedge, went forth again down 
 the high road until, after crossing the brook,
 
 The Result of Investigation 277 
 
 they turned to the right into Asheldham village, 
 where, half-way between that place and New 
 Hall, they turned up a short by-road, a cul-de- 
 sac, at the end of which a big, old-fashioned, red- 
 brick house of the days of Queen Anne, half hid- 
 den by a belt of high Scotch firs, came into view. 
 
 Shut off from the by-road by a high, time- 
 mellowed brick wall, it stood back lonely and 
 secluded in about a couple of acres of well wood- 
 ed ground. From a big, rusty iron gate the ill- 
 kept, gravelled drive took a broad sweep up 
 to the front of the house, a large, roomy one 
 with square, inartistic windows and plain front, 
 the ugliness of which the ivy strove to hide. 
 
 In the grey light of that wintry afternoon 
 the place looked inexpressibly dismal and neg- 
 lected. Years ago it had, no doubt, been the 
 residence of some well-to-do county family; but 
 in these twentieth-century post-war days, hav- 
 ing been empty for nearly ten years, it had gone 
 sadly to rack and ruin. 
 
 The lawns had become weedy, the carriage- 
 drive was, in places, green with moss, like the 
 sills of the windows and the high-pitched, tiled 
 roof itself. In the centre of the lawn, before the 
 house, stood four great ancient yews, while all 
 round were high box hedges, now, alas! neglect- 
 ed, untrimmed and full of holes.
 
 278 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 The curtains were of the commonest kind, 
 while the very steps leading to the front door 
 were grey with lichen and strewn with wisps of 
 straw. The whole aspect was one of neglect, 
 of decay, of mystery. 
 
 The two men, opening the creaking iron gate, 
 advanced boldly to the door, an excuse ready 
 in case Pietro opened it. 
 
 They knocked loudly, but there was no re- 
 sponse. Their summons echoed through the big 
 hall, causing Walter to remark: 
 
 !< There can't be much furniture inside, 
 judging from the sound." 
 
 " Four motor vanloads came here," respond- 
 ed the sergeant. ' The first was in a plain van." 
 
 ' You did not discover whence it came? " 
 
 " I asked the driver down at the inn at 
 Southminster, and he told me that they came 
 from the Trinity Furnishing Company, Peck- 
 ham. But, on making inquiries, I found that 
 he lied; there is no such company in Peckham." 
 
 ' You saw the furniture unloaded? " 
 
 " I was about here when the first lot came, 
 When the other three vans arrived I was away 
 on my annual leave," was the sergeant's reply. 
 
 Again they knocked, but no one came to the 
 door. A terrier approached, but he proved 
 friendly, therefore they proceeded to make an
 
 The Result of Investigation 279 
 
 inspection of the empty stabling and disused 
 outbuildings. 
 
 Three old hen-coops were the only signs of 
 poultry-farming they could discover, and these, 
 placed in a conspicuous position in the big, 
 paved yard, were without feathered occupants. 
 
 There were three doors by which the house 
 could be entered, and all of them Walter tried 
 and found locked. Therefore, noticing in the 
 rubbish-heap some stray pieces of paper, he at 
 once turned his attention to what he discovered 
 were fragments of a torn letter. It was written 
 in French, and, apparently, had reference to 
 certain securities held by the tenant of The 
 Yews. 
 
 But as only a small portion of the destroyed 
 communication could be found, its purport was 
 not very clear, and the name and address of the 
 writer could not be ascertained. 
 
 Yet it had already been proved without 
 doubt that the mysterious tenant of the dismal 
 old place the man who posed as a poultry- 
 farmer had had as visitors Dr. Weirmarsh and 
 Enid Olebar! 
 
 For a full half -hour, while the red-faced ser- 
 geant kept watch at the gate, Walter Fetherston 
 continued to investigate that rubbish-heap, 
 which showed signs of having been burning quite
 
 280 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 recently, for most of the scraps of paper were 
 charred at their edges. 
 
 The sodden remains of many letters he with- 
 drew and tried to read, but the scraps gave no 
 tangible result, and he was just about to re- 
 linquish his search when his eye caught a scrap 
 of bright blue notepaper of a familiar hue. It 
 was half burned, and blurred by the rain, but at 
 the corner he recognised some embossing in dark 
 blue familiar embossing it was of part of the 
 address in Hill Street! 
 
 The paper was that used habitually by Enid 
 Orlebar, and upon it was a date, two months 
 before, and the single word " over " in her fa- 
 miliar handwriting. 
 
 He took his stout walking-stick, in reality a 
 sword-case, and frantically searched for other 
 scraps, but could find none. One tiny portion 
 only had been preserved from the flames 
 paraffin having been poured over the heap to 
 render it the more inflammable. But that scrap 
 in itself was sufficient proof that Enid had writ- 
 ten to the mysterious tenant of The Yews. 
 
 ;< Well," he said at last, approaching the ser- 
 geant, " do you think the coast is clear enough? " 
 
 "For what?" 
 
 " To get a glimpse inside. There's a good
 
 The Result of Investigation 281 
 
 deal more mystery here than we imagine, depend 
 upon it! " Walter exclaimed. 
 
 " Master and man will return by the same 
 train, I expect, unless they come back in a mo- 
 tor-car. If they come by train they won't be 
 here till well past eight, so we'll have at least 
 three hours by ourselves." 
 
 Walter Fetherston glanced around. Twi- 
 light was fast falling. 
 
 " It'll be dark inside, but I've brought my 
 electric torch," he said. " There's a kitchen win- 
 dow with an ordinary latch." 
 
 ' That's no use. There are iron bars," de- 
 clared the sergeant. " I examined it the other 
 day. The small staircase window at the side is 
 the best means of entry." And he took the nov- 
 elist round and showed him a long narrow win- 
 dow about five feet from the ground. 
 
 Walter's one thought was of Enid. Why 
 had she written to that mysterious foreigner? 
 Why had she visited there? Why, indeed, was 
 she back in England surreptitiously, and in that 
 neighbourhood ? 
 
 The short winter's afternoon was nearly at 
 an end as they stood contemplating the window 
 prior to breaking in for Walter Fetherston felt 
 justified in breaking the law in order to examine 
 the interior of that place.
 
 282 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 In the dark branches of the trees the wind 
 whistled mournfully, and the scudding clouds 
 were precursory of rain. 
 
 " Great Scott! " exclaimed Walter. " This 
 isn't a particularly cheerful abode, is it, ser- 
 geant? " 
 
 " No, sir, if I lived 'ere I'd have the blues in 
 a week," laughed the man. " I can't think 'ow 
 Mr. Bailey employs 'is time." 
 
 " Poultry-farming," laughed Fetherston, as, 
 standing on tiptoe, he examined the window- 
 latch by flashing on the electric torch. 
 
 " No good! " he declared. " There's a shut- 
 ter covered with new sheet-iron behind." 
 
 " It doesn't show through the curtain," ex- 
 claimed Deacon. 
 
 " But it's there. Our friend is evidently 
 afraid of burglars." 
 
 From window to window they passed, but 
 the mystery was considerably increased by the 
 discovery that at each of those on the ground 
 floor were iron-faced shutters, though so placed 
 as not to be noticeable behind the windows, 
 which were entirely covered with cheap curtain 
 muslin. 
 
 ;< That's funny! " exclaimed the sergeant. 
 " I've never examined them with a light before." 
 
 " They have all been newly strengthened,"*
 
 The Result of Investigation 283 
 
 declared Fetherston. " On the other side I ex- 
 pect there are strips of steel placed lattice-wise, 
 a favourite device of foreigners. Mr. Bailey," 
 he added, " evidently has no desire that any in- 
 truder should gain access to his residence." 
 
 ' What shall we do?" asked Deacon, for it 
 was now rapidly growing dark. 
 
 A thought had suddenly occurred to Walter 
 that perhaps Enid's intention was to make a call 
 there, after all. 
 
 " Our only way to obtain entrance is, I think, 
 by one of the upper windows," replied the man 
 whose very life was occupied by the investiga- 
 tion of mysteries. " In the laundry I noticed 
 a ladder. Let us go and get it." 
 
 So the ladder, a rather rotten and insecure 
 one, was obtained, and after some difficulty 
 placed against the wall. It would not, however, 
 reach to the windows, as first intended, there- 
 fore Walter mounted upon the slippery, moss- 
 grown tiles of a wing of the house, and after a 
 few moments' exploration discovered a skylight 
 which proved to be over the head of the servants' 
 staircase. 
 
 This he lifted, and, fixing around a chimney- 
 stack a strong silk rope he had brought in his 
 pocket ready for any emergency, he threw it
 
 284 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 down the opening, and quickly lowered himself 
 through. 
 
 Scarcely had he done so, and was standing on 
 the uncarpeted stairs, when his quick ear caught 
 the sound of Deacon's footsteps receding over 
 the gravel around to the front of the house. 
 
 Then, a second later, he heard a loud chal- 
 lenge from the gloom in a man's voice that was 
 unfamiliar: 
 
 "Who's there?" 
 
 There was no reply. Walter listened with 
 bated breath. 
 
 ' What are you doing there? " cried the new- 
 comer in a voice in which was a marked foreign 
 accent. " Speak! speak! or I'll shoot! "
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 WALTER did not move. He realised that a con- 
 tretemps had occurred. The ladder still lean- 
 ing against the wall outside would reveal his in- 
 trusion. Yet, at last inside, he intended, at all 
 hazards, to explore the place and learn the rea- 
 son why the mysterious stranger had started 
 that " poultry farm." 
 
 He was practically in the dark, fearing to 
 flash on his torch lest he should be discovered. 
 
 Was it possible that Bailey or his Italian 
 manservant had unexpectedly returned! 
 
 Those breathless moments seemed hours. 
 
 Suddenly he heard a second challenge. The 
 challenger used a fierce Italian oath, and by it 
 he knew that it was Pietro. 
 
 In reply, a shot rang out evidently from 
 the sergeant's pistol, followed by another sharp 
 report, and still another. This action showed 
 the man Deacon to be a shrewd person, for the 
 effect was exactly as he had intended. The 
 
 85
 
 286 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 Italian servant turned on his heel and flew for 
 his life down the drive, shouting in his native 
 tongue for help and for the police. 
 
 "Madonna santa!" he yelled. 'Who are 
 you here? " he demanded in Italian. " I'll go to 
 the police 1 " 
 
 And in terror he rushed off down the road. 
 
 " All right, sir," cried the sergeant, after 
 the servant had disappeared. " I've given the 
 fellow a good fright. Be quick and have a look 
 round, sir. You can be out again before he 
 raises the alarm ! " 
 
 In an instant Walter flashed on his torch 
 and, dashing down the stairs, crossed the kitchen 
 and found himself in the hall. From room to 
 room he rushed, but found only two rooms on 
 the ground floor furnished a sitting-room, 
 which had been the original dining-room, while 
 in the study was a chair-bed, most probably 
 where Pietro jslept. 
 
 On the table lay a heavy revolver, fully load- 
 ed, and this Fetherston quickly transferred to 
 his jacket pocket. 
 
 Next moment he dashed up the old well 
 staircase two steps at a time and entered room 
 after room. Only one was furnished the ten- 
 ant's bedroom. In it he found a number of 
 suits of clothes, while on the dressing-table lay a
 
 The Secret of the Lonely House 287 
 
 false moustache, evidently for disguise. A small 
 writing-table was set in the window, and upon 
 it was strewn a quantity of papers. 
 
 As he flashed his torch round he was amazed 
 to see, arranged upon a neat deal table in a cor- 
 ner, some curious-looking machinery which 
 looked something like printing-presses. But 
 they were a mystery to him. 
 
 The discovery was a strange one. What it 
 meant he did not then realise. There seemed to 
 be quite a quantity of apparatus and machinery. 
 It was this which had been conveyed there in 
 those furniture vans of the Trinity Furnishing 
 Company. 
 
 He heard Deacon's voice calling again. 
 Therefore, having satisfied himself as to the na- 
 ture of the contents of that neglected old house, 
 he ascended the stone steps into the passage 
 which led through a faded green-baize door into 
 the main hall. 
 
 As he entered he heard voices in loud discus- 
 sion. Sergeant Deacon and the servant Pietro 
 had met face to face. 
 
 The Italian had evidently aroused the vil- 
 lagers in Asheldham, for there were sounds of 
 many voices of men out on the gravelled drive. 
 
 " I came up here a quarter of an hour ago,'* 
 the Italian cried excitedly in his broken Eng-
 
 288 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 lish, " and somebody fired at me. They tried to 
 kill me!" 
 
 " But who? " asked Deacon in pretended ig- 
 norance. He was uncertain what to do, Mr. 
 Fetherston being still within the house and the 
 ladder, his only means of escape, still standing 
 against a side wall. 
 
 'Thieves!" cried the man, his foreign ac- 
 cent more pronounced in his excitement, 
 challenged them, and they fired at me. I am 
 glad that you, a police sergeant, are here." 
 
 " So am I," cried Walter Fetherston, sud~ 
 denly throwing open the front door and stand- 
 ing before the knot of alarmed villagers, though 
 it was so dark that they could not recognise who 
 he was. " Deacon," he added authoritatively, 
 " arrest that foreigner." 
 
 "Diavolo! Who are you?" demanded the 
 Italian angrily. 
 
 ' You will know in due course," replied 
 Fetherston. Then, turning to the crowd, he 
 added: " Gentlemen, I came here with Ser- 
 geant Deacon to search this house. He will tell 
 you whether that statement is true or not." 
 
 " Quite," declared the breezy sergeant, who 
 already had the Italian by the collar and coat- 
 sleeve. " It was I who fired to frighten him 
 off!"
 
 The Secret of the Lonely House 289 
 
 At this the crowd laughed. They had no 
 liking for foreigners of any sort after the war, 
 and were really secretly pleased to see that the 
 sergeant had " taken him up." 
 
 But what for? they asked themselves. Why 
 had the police searched The Yews? Mr. Bailey 
 was a quiet, inoffensive man, very free with his 
 money to everybody around. 
 
 " Jack Beard," cried Deacon to a man in the 
 crowd, " just go down to Asheldham and tele- 
 phone to Superintendent Warden at Maldon. 
 Ask him to send me over three men at once, will 
 
 you?" 
 
 "All right, Sam," was the prompt reply, 
 and the man went off, while the sergeant took 
 the resentful Italian into the house to await an 
 escort. 
 
 Deacon called the assistance of two men and 
 invited them in. Then, while they mounted 
 guard over the prisoner, Fetherston addressed 
 the little knot of amazed men who had been 
 alarmed by the Italian's statement. 
 
 " Listen, gentlemen," he said. ' We shall in 
 a couple of hours' time expect the return of Mr. 
 Bailey, the tenant of this house. There is a 
 very serious charge against him. I therefore 
 put everyone of you upon your honour to say 
 no word of what has occurred here to-night not
 
 290 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 until Mr. Bailey arrives. I should prefer you 
 all to remain here and wait ; otherwise, if a word 
 be dropped at Southminster, he may turn back 
 and fly from justice." 
 
 ' What's the charge, sir? " asked one man, 
 a bearded old labourer. 
 
 " A very serious one," was Walter's evasive 
 reply. 
 
 Then, after a pause, they all agreed to wait 
 and witness the dramatic arrest of the man who 
 was charged with some mysterious offence. 
 Speculation was rife as to what it would be, and 
 almost every crime in the calendar was cited as 
 likely. 
 
 Meanwhile Fetherston, returning to the 
 barely-furnished sitting-room, interrogated Pie- 
 tro in Italian, but only obtained sullen answers. 
 A loaded revolver had been found upon him by 
 Deacon, and promptly confiscated. 
 
 " I have already searched the place," Walter 
 said to the prisoner, " and I know what it con- 
 tains." 
 
 But in response the man who had posed as 
 servant, but who, with his " master," was the 
 custodian of the place, only grinned and gave 
 vent to muttered imprecations in Italian. 
 
 Fetherston afterwards left the small assem- 
 bly and made examination of some bedrooms he
 
 The Secret of the Lonely House 291 
 
 had not yet inspected. In three of these, the 
 locks of which he broke open, he discovered 
 quantities of interesting papers, together with 
 pnother mysterious-looking press. 
 
 While trying to decide what it all meant he 
 suddenly heard a great shouting and commo- 
 tion outside, and ran down to the door to ascer- 
 tain its cause. 
 
 As he opened it he saw that in the darkness 
 the crowd outside had grown excited. 
 
 4 'Ere you are, sir," cried one man, ascend- 
 ing the steps. ' 'Ere are two visitors. We 
 found 'em comin' up the road, and, seein' us, 
 they tried to get away ! " 
 
 Walter held up a hurricane lantern which 
 he had found and lit, when its dim, uncertain 
 light fell upon the two prisoners in the crowd. 
 
 Behind stood Summers, while before him, to 
 Fetherston's utter amazement, showed Enid 
 Orlebar, pale and terrified, and the grey, sinister 
 face of Doctor Weirmarsh.
 
 CONTAINS SOME STAETLING STATEMENTS 
 
 ENID, recognising Walter, shrank back instantly 
 in fear and shame, while Weirmarsh started at 
 that unexpected meeting with the man whom he 
 knew to be his bitterest and most formidable 
 opponent. 
 
 The small crowd of excited onlookers, ign 
 norant of the true facts, but their curiosity 
 aroused by the unusual circumstances, had pre- 
 vented the pair from turning back and making 
 a hurried escape. 
 
 " Enid! " exclaimed Fetherston, as the girl 
 reluctantly crossed the threshold with downcast 
 head, "what is the meaning of this? Why are 
 you paying a visit to this house at such an 
 hour? " 
 
 " Ah, Walter," she cried, her small, gloved 
 hands clenched with a sudden outburst of emo- 
 tion, " be patient and hear me ! I will tell you 
 everything everything! " 
 
 * You won't," growled the doctor sharply. 
 " If you do, by Gad! it will be the worse for you! 
 
 292
 
 
 Some Startling Statements 293 
 
 So you'd best keep a silent tongue otherwise 
 you know the consequences. I shall now tell the 
 truth and you won't like that! " 
 
 She drew back in terror of the man who held 
 such an extraordinary influence over her. She 
 had grasped Fetherston's hand convulsively, 
 but at Weirmarsh's threat she had released her 
 hold and was standing in the hall, pale, rigid and 
 staring. 
 
 " Summers," exclaimed Fetherston, turning 
 to his companion, " you know this person, eh? " 
 
 " Yes, sir, I should rather think I do," re- 
 plied the man, with a grin. 
 
 " Well, detain him for the present, and take 
 your instructions from London." 
 
 " You have no power or right to detain me," 
 declared the grey-faced doctor in quick defiance. 
 ' You are not a police officer ! " 
 
 " No, but this is a police officer," Fetherston 
 replied, indicating Summers, and adding: " Ser- 
 geant, I give that man into custody." 
 
 The sergeant advanced and laid his big hand 
 upon the doctor's shoulder, telling him to con- 
 sider himself under arrest. 
 
 "But this is abominable outrageous!" 
 Weirmarsh cried, shaking him off. " I've com- 
 mitted no offence." 
 
 " That is a matter for later consideration,"
 
 294 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 calmly replied the man who had devoted so 
 much of his time and money to the investiga- 
 tion of mysteries of crime. 
 
 In one of the bare bedrooms upstairs Fether- 
 ston had, in examining one of the well made 
 hand-presses set up there, found beside it a num- 
 ber of one-pound Treasury notes. In curiosity 
 he took one up, and found it to be in an unfin- 
 ished state. It was printed in green, without the 
 brown colouring. Yet it was perfect as regards 
 the paper and printing even to its black serial 
 number. 
 
 Next second the truth flashed upon him. 
 The whole apparatus, presses and everything, 
 had been set up there to print the war paper 
 currency of Great Britain! 
 
 In the room adjoining he had seen bundles 
 of slips of similar paper, all neatly packed in 
 elastic bands, and waiting the final process of 
 colouring and toning. One bundle had only the 
 Houses of Parliament printed; the other side 
 was blank. He saw in a flash that the placing 
 in circulation of such a huge quantity of Treas- 
 ury notes, amounting to hundreds of thousands 
 of pounds, must seriously damage the credit of 
 the nation. 
 
 For a few seconds he held an unfinished note 
 in his hand examining it, and deciding that the
 
 Some Startling Statements 295 
 
 imitation was most perfect. It deceived him 
 and would undoubtedly deceive any bank-teller. 
 
 In those rooms it was plain that various 
 processes had been conducted, from the manipu- 
 lation of the watermark, by a remarkably in- 
 genious process, right down to the finished one- 
 pound note, so well done that not even an ex- 
 pert could detect the forgery. There were many 
 French one-hundred-franc notes as well. 
 
 The whole situation was truly astounding. 
 Again the thought hammered home: such a 
 quantity of paper in circulation must affect the 
 national finances of Britain. And at the head 
 of the band who were printing and circulating 
 those spurious notes was the mysterious medical 
 man who carried on his practice in Pimlico! 
 
 The scene within the sparsely furnished 
 house containing those telltale presses was in- 
 deed a weird one. 
 
 Somebody had found a cheap paraffin lamp 
 and lit it in the sitting-room, where they were 
 all assembled, the front door having been closed. 
 
 It was apparent that Pietro was no stranger 
 to the doctor and his fair companion, but both 
 men were highly resentful that they had been 
 so entrapped. 
 
 " Doctor Weirmarsh," exclaimed Fetherston 
 seriously, as he stood before him, " I have just
 
 2g6 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 examined this house and have ascertained what 
 it contains." 
 
 ' You've told him! " cried the man, turning 
 fiercely upon Enid. ' You have betrayed me ! 
 Ah! It will be the worse for you and for your 
 family," he added harshly. " You will see ! I 
 shall now reveal the truth concerning your step- 
 father, and you and your family will be held up 
 to opprobrium throughout the whole length and 
 breadth of your land." 
 
 Enid did not reply. She was pale as death, 
 her face downcast, her lips white as marble. She 
 knew, alas! that Weirmarsh, now that he was 
 cornered, would not spare her. 
 
 There was a pause a very painful pause. 
 
 Everyone next instant listened to a noise 
 which sounded outside. As it grew nearer it 
 grew more distinct the whir of an approaching 
 motor-car. 
 
 It pulled up suddenly before the door, and 
 a moment later the old bell clanged loudly 
 through the half -empty house. 
 
 Fetherston left the room, and going to the 
 door, threw it open, when yet another surprise 
 awaited him. 
 
 Upon the steps stood four men in thick over- 
 coats, all of whom Walter instantly recognised. 
 
 With Trendall stood Sir Hugh Elcombe,
 
 Some Startling Statements 297 
 
 while their companions were two detective-in- 
 spectors from Scotland Yard. 
 
 " Hallo ! Fetherston ! " gasped Trendall. 
 " I I expected to find Weirmarsh here ! What 
 has happened? " 
 
 " The doctor is already here," was the oth- 
 er's quick reply. " I have found some curious 
 things in this place! Secret printing-presses for 
 forged notes." 
 
 ' We already know that," he said. " Sir 
 Hugh Elcombe here has, unknown to us, ob- 
 tained certain knowledge, and to-day he came 
 to me and gave me a full statement of what has 
 been in progress. What he has told me this 
 afternoon is among the most valuable and reli- 
 able information that we ever received." 
 
 " I know something of the scoundrels," re- 
 marked the old general, " because well, be- 
 cause, as I have confessed to Mr. Trendall, I 
 yielded to temptation long ago and assisted 
 them." 
 
 " Whatever you have done, Sir Hugh, you 
 have at least revealed to us the whole plot. Only 
 by pretending to render assistance to these 
 scoundrels could you have gained the intensely 
 valuable knowledge which you've imparted to 
 me to-day," replied the keen-faced director from 
 Scotland Yard.
 
 298 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 Fetherston realised instantly that the fine old 
 fellow, whom he had always held in such esteem, 
 was making every effort to atone for his con- 
 duct in the past; but surely that was not the 
 moment to refer to it so he ushered the four 
 men into the ill-lit dining-room wherein the oth- 
 ers were standing, none knowing how next to 
 act. 
 
 When the doctor and Sir Hugh faced each 
 other there was a painful silence for a few sec- 
 onds. 
 
 To Weirmarsh Trendall was known by 
 sight, therefore the criminal saw that the game 
 was up, and that Sir Hugh had risked his own 
 reputation in betraying him. 
 
 'You infernal scoundrel!" cried the doctor 
 angrily. ' You to whom I have paid so many 
 thousands of pounds have given me away! But 
 I'll be even with you! " 
 
 "Say what you like," laughed the old gen- 
 eral in defiance. ' To me it is the same what- 
 ever you allege. I have already admitted my 
 slip from the straight path. I do not deny re- 
 ceiving money from your hands, nor do I deny 
 that, in a certain measure, I have committed se- 
 rious offences because, having taken one step, 
 you forced me on to others, always holding over 
 me the threat of exposure and ruin. But, for-
 
 Some Startling Statements 299 
 
 tunately, one day, in desperation, I took Enid 
 yonder into my confidence. It was she who sug- 
 gested that I might serve the ends of justice, 
 and perhaps atone for what I had already done, 
 by learning your secrets, and, when the time was 
 ripe, revealing all the interesting details to our 
 authorities. Enid became your friend and the 
 friend of your friends. She risked everything 
 her honour, her happiness, her future by as- 
 sociating with you for the one and sole purpose 
 of assisting me to learn all the dastardly plot in 
 progress." 
 
 " It was you who supplied Paul Le Pontois 
 with the false notes he passed in France ! " de- 
 clared Weirmarsh. " The French police know 
 that ; and if ever you or your step-daughter put 
 foot in France you will be arrested." 
 
 " Evidently you are unaware, Doctor, that 
 my son-in-law, Paul Le Pontois, was released 
 yesterday," laughed Sir Hugh in triumph. 
 " Your treachery, which is now known by the 
 Surete, defeated its own ends." 
 
 "Further," remarked Walter Fetherston, 
 turning to Enid, " it was this man here " and 
 he indicated the grey-faced doctor of Pimlico 
 " this man who denounced you and Sir Hugh to 
 the French authorities, and had you not heeded 
 my warning you both would then have been ar-
 
 300 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 rested. He had evidently suspected the object 
 of your friendliness with me that you both in- 
 tended to reveal the truth and he adopted that 
 course in order to secure your incarceration in a 
 foreign prison, and so close your lips." 
 
 " I knew you suspected me all along, Wal- 
 ter," replied the girl, standing a little aside and 
 suddenly clutching his hand. " But you will 
 forgive me now forgive me, won't you?" she 
 implored, looking up into his dark, determined 
 face. 
 
 " Of course," he replied, " I have already 
 forgiven you. I had no idea of the true reason 
 of your association with this man." 
 
 And he raised her gloved hand and carried 
 it gallantly to his eager lips. 
 
 :< Though more than mere suspicion has rest- 
 ed upon you," he went on, " you and your step- 
 father deserve the heartiest thanks of the nation 
 for risking everything in order to be in a posi- 
 tion to reveal this dastardly financial plot. That 
 man there " and he indicated the doctor " de- 
 serves all he'll get! " 
 
 The doctor advanced threateningly, and, 
 drawing a big automatic revolver from his pock- 
 et, would have fired at the man who had spoken 
 his mind so freely had not Deacon, quick as
 
 Some Startling Statements 301 
 
 lightning, sprung forward and wrenched the 
 weapon so that the bullet went upward. 
 
 White with anger and chagrin, the doctor 
 stood roundly abusing the man who had investi- 
 gated that lonely house. 
 
 But Fetherston laughed, which only irritated 
 him the more. He raved like a caged lion, un- 
 til the veins in his brow stood out in great knots ; 
 but, finding all protests and allegations useless, 
 he at last became quiet again, and apparently be- 
 gan to review the situation from a purely philo- 
 sophical standpoint, until, some ten minutes 
 later, another motor-car dashed up and in it were 
 an inspector and four plain-clothes constables, 
 who had been sent over from Maldon in response 
 to Deacon's message for assistance. 
 
 When they entered Pietro became voluble, 
 but the narrow-eyed doctor of Pimlico remained 
 sullen and silent, biting his lips. He saw that he 
 had been entrapped by the very man whom he 
 had believed to be as clay in his hands. 
 
 The scene was surely exciting as well as im- 
 pressive. The half -furnished, ill-lit dining-room 
 was full of excited men, all talking at once. 
 
 Unnoticed, Walter drew Enid into the shad- 
 ow, and in a few brief, passionate words reas- 
 sured her of his great affection. 
 
 "Ah!" she cried, bursting into hot tears,
 
 302 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 " your words, Walter, have lifted a great load of 
 sorrow and apprehension from my mind, for I 
 feared that when you knew the truth you would 
 never, never forgive." 
 
 " But I have forgiven," he whispered, press- 
 ing her hand. 
 
 " Then wait until we are alone, and I will 
 tell you everything. Ah ! you do not know, Wal- 
 ter, what I have suffered what a terrible strain 
 I have sustained in these days of terror! " 
 
 But scarcely had she uttered those words 
 when the door reopened and a man was ushered 
 in by Deacon, who had gone out in response to 
 the violent ringing of the bell. 
 
 " This is Mr. Bailey, tenant of the house, 
 gentlemen," said the sergeant, introducing him 
 with mock politeness. 
 
 Fetherston glanced up, and to his surprise 
 saw standing in the doorway a man he had 
 known, and whose movements he had so closely 
 followed the man who had gone to Monte Car- 
 lo for instructions, and perhaps payment the 
 man who had passed as Monsieur Granier!
 
 CHAPTER XXX 
 
 KEVEALS A WOMAN'S LOVE 
 
 GREAT was the consternation caused in the 
 neighbourhood of the sleepy old-world village 
 of Asheldham when it became known that the 
 quiet, mild-mannered tenant of The Yews had 
 been arrested by the Maldon police. 
 
 Of what transpired within those grim walls 
 only the two men called to his assistance by Ser- 
 geant Deacon knew, and to them both the in- 
 spector from Maldon, as well as Trendall, ex- 
 pressed a fervent hope that they would regard 
 the matter as strictly confidential. 
 
 " You see, gentlemen," added Trendall, " we 
 are not desirous that the public should know of 
 our discovery. We wish to avoid creating un- 
 due alarm, and at the same time to conceal the 
 very existence of our system of surveillance 
 upon those suspected. Therefore, I trust that 
 all of you present will assist my department by 
 preserving silence as to what has occurred here 
 this evening." 
 
 His hearers agreed willingly, and through 
 
 303
 
 304 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 the next hour the place was thoroughly searched, 
 the bundles of spurious notes the finished ones 
 representing nearly one hundred thousand 
 pounds ready to put into circulation being 
 seized. 
 
 One of the machines they found was for 
 printing in the serial numbers in black, a process 
 which, with genuine notes, is done by hand. 
 Truly, the gang had brought the art of forgery 
 to perfection. 
 
 " Well," said Trendall when they had fin- 
 ished, " this work of yours, Sir Hugh, certainly 
 deserves the highest commendation. You have 
 accomplished what we, with all our great organi- 
 sation, utterly failed to do." 
 
 " I have to-day tried to atone for my past of- 
 fences," was the stern old man's hoarse reply. 
 
 " And you have succeeded, Sir Hugh," de- 
 clared Trendall. "Indeed you have!" 
 
 Shortly, afterwards the excitement among 
 the crowd waiting outside in the light of the 
 head-lamps of the motor-cars was increased by 
 the appearance of the doctor, escorted by 
 two Maldon police officers in plain clothes. 
 They mounted a police car, and were driven 
 away down the road, while into a second car the 
 tenant of The Yews and his Italian manservant 
 were placed under escort, and also driven away.
 
 Reveals a Woman's Love 305 
 
 The station-fly, in which Bailey had driven 
 from Southminster, conveyed away Fetherston, 
 Trendall, Sir Hugh, and Enid, while Deacon, 
 with two men, was left in charge of the house 
 of secrets. 
 
 It was past one o'clock in the morning when 
 Walter Fetherston stood alone with Enid in the 
 pretty drawing-room in Hill Street. 
 
 They stood together upon the vieux rose 
 hearthrug, his hand was upon her shoulder, his 
 deep, earnest gaze fixed upon hers. In her 
 splendid eyes the love light showed. They had 
 both admired each other intensely from their 
 first meeting, and had become very good and 
 staunch friends. Walter Fetherston had only 
 once spoken of the passion that had constantly 
 consumed his heart when they were by the blue 
 sea at Biarritz. He loved her loved her with 
 the whole strength of his being and yet, ah! try 
 how he would, he could never put aside the dark 
 cloud of suspicion which, as the days went by, 
 became more and more impenetrable. 
 
 Sweet-faced, frank, and open, she stood, the 
 ideal of the English outdoor girl, merry, quick- 
 witted, and athletic. And yet, after the stress 
 of war, she had sacrificed all that she held most 
 dear in order to become the friend of Weir- 
 marsh. Why?
 
 306 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 " Enid," he said at last, his tender hand still 
 upon her shoulder, " why did you not tell me 
 your true position? You were working in the 
 same direction, with the same strong motive of 
 patriotism, as myself!" 
 
 She was silent, very pale, and very serious. 
 
 " I feared to tell you, Walter," she faltered. 
 " How could I possibly reveal to you the truth 
 when I knew you were aware how my stepfather 
 had unconsciously betrayed his friends? You 
 judged us both as undesirables, therefore any 
 attempt at explanation would, I know, only ag- 
 gravate our offence in your eyes. Ah! you do 
 not know how intensely I have suffered! How 
 bitter it all was ! I knew the reason you followed 
 us to France to watch and confirm your sus- 
 picions." 
 
 " I admit, Enid, that I suspected you of be- 
 ing in the hands of a set of scoundrels," her lover 
 said in a low, hoarse voice. " At first I hesitated 
 whether to warn you of your peril after Weir- 
 marsh had, with such dastardly cunning, be- 
 trayed you to the French police, but well," he 
 added as he looked again into her dear eyes long 
 and earnestly, " I loved you, Enid," he blurted 
 forth. " I told you so ! Remember, dear, what 
 you said at Biarritz? And I love you and be- 
 cause of that I resolved to save you 1 "
 
 Reveals a Woman's Love 307 
 
 ;< Which you did," she said in a strained, me- 
 chanical tone. " We both have you to thank for 
 our escape. Weirmarsh, having first implicated 
 Paul, then made allegations against us, in order 
 to send us to prison, because he feared lest my 
 stepfather might, in a fit of remorse, act indis- 
 creetly and make a confession." 
 
 ' The past will all be forgiven now that Sir 
 Hugh has been able to expose and unmask 
 Weirmarsh and his band," Walter assured her. 
 " A great sensation may possibly result, but it 
 will, in any case, show that even though an Eng- 
 lishman may be bought, he can still remain hon- 
 est. And," he added, " it will also show them 
 that there is at least one brave woman in Eng- 
 land who sacrificed her love for I know well, 
 Enid, that you fully reciprocate the great affec- 
 tion I feel towards you in order to bear her 
 noble part in combating a wily and unscrupu- 
 lous gang." 
 
 " It was surely my duty," replied the girl 
 simply, her eyes downcast in modesty. ' Yet 
 association with that dastardly blackguard, Dr. 
 Weirmarsh, was horrible! How I refrained 
 from turning upon him through all those months 
 I cannot really tell. I detested him from the 
 first moment Sir Hugh invited him to our table; 
 and though I went to assist him under guise of
 
 "38 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 consultations, I acted with one object all along," 
 she declared, her eyes raised to his and flashing, 
 " to expose him in his true guise that of Josef 
 Blot, the head of the most dangerous association 
 of forgers, of international thieves and black- 
 mailers known to the police for the past half a 
 century." 
 
 ; ' Which you have surely done ! You have 
 revealed the whole plot, and confounded those 
 who were so cleverly conspiring to effect a sud- 
 den and most gigantic coup. But " and he 
 
 paused, still looking into her eyes through his 
 pince-nez, and sighed. 
 
 " But what? " she asked, in some surprise at 
 his sudden change of manner. 
 
 ' There is one matter, Enid, which " and 
 he paused " well, which is still a mystery to me, 
 and I I want you to explain it," he said in slow 
 deliberation. 
 
 " What is that? " she asked, looking at him 
 quickly. 
 
 ' The mystery which you have always re- 
 fused to assist me in unravelling the mystery 
 of the death of Harry Bellairs," was his quiet 
 reply. "You held him in high esteem; you 
 loved him," he added in a voice scarce above a 
 whisper. 
 
 She drew back, her countenance suddenly
 
 Reveals a Woman's Love 3Q9 
 
 blanched as she put her hand quickly to her brow 
 and reeled slightly as though she had been dealt 
 a blow. 
 
 Walter watched her in blank wonderment.
 
 CHAPTER XXXI 
 
 IN WHICH SIB HUGH TELLS HIS STOEY 
 
 'You know the truth, don't you, dearest?" 
 Walter asked at last in that quiet, sympathetic 
 tone which he always adopted towards her whom 
 he loved so well. 
 
 Enid nodded in the affirmative, her face hard 
 and drawn. 
 
 " He was killed, was he not deliberately 
 murdered?" 
 
 For a few seconds the silence was unbroken 
 save for a whir of a taxicab passing outside. 
 
 ' Yes," was her somewhat reluctant re- 
 sponse. 
 
 ' You went to his rooms that afternoon," 
 Walter asserted point blank. 
 
 " I do not deny that. I followed him home 
 to to save him." 
 
 There was a break in her voice as she stam- 
 mered out the last words, and tears rushed into 
 her dark eyes. 
 
 " From what? From death? " 
 
 " No, from falling a prey to a great tempta- 
 tion set before him." 
 
 31Q
 
 Sir Hugh Tells His Story 311 
 
 " By whom? " 
 
 " By the doctor, to whom my stepfather had 
 introduced him," was the girl's reply. " I dis- 
 covered by mere chance that the doctor, who had 
 somewhat got him into his clutches, had ap- 
 proached him in order to induce him to allow 
 him to take a wax impression of a certain safe 
 key belonging to a friend of his named Thurs- 
 ton, a diamond broker in Hatton Garden. He 
 had offered him a very substantial sum to do 
 this a sum which would have enabled him to 
 clear off all his debts and start afresh. Harry's 
 younger brother Bob had got into a mess, and 
 in helping him out Harry had sadly entangled 
 himself and was practically face to face with 
 bankruptcy. I knew this, and I knew what a 
 great temptation had been placed before him. 
 Fearing lest, in a moment of despair, he might 
 accept, I went, by appointment, to his chambers 
 as soon as I arrived in London. Barker, his 
 man, had been sent out, and ^e were alone. I 
 found him in desperation, yet to my great de- 
 light he had defied Weirmarsh, saying he re- 
 fused to betray his friend." 
 
 " And what did Bellairs tell you further? " 
 
 " He expressed suspicion that my stepfather 
 was in the doctor's pay," she replied. ; ' I tried 
 to convince him to the contrary, but Weir-
 
 312 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 marsh's suggestion had evidently furnished the 
 key to some suspicious document which he had 
 one day found on Sir Hugh's writing-table." 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 ' Well," she went on slowly, " we quarrelled. 
 I was indignant that he should suspect my step- 
 father, and he was full of vengeance against Sir 
 Hugh's friend the doctor. Presently I left, and 
 >and I never saw him again alive ! " 
 
 "What happened?" 
 
 ' What happened is explained by this let- 
 ter," she replied, crossing to a little buhl bureau 
 which she unlocked, taking out a sealed enve- 
 lope. On breaking it open and handing it to him 
 she said : " This is the letter he wrote to me with 
 his dying hand. I have kept it a secret a secret 
 even from Sir Hugh." 
 
 Walter read the uneven lines eagerty. They 
 grew more shaky and more illegible towards the 
 end, but they were sufficient to make the truth 
 absolutely clear. 
 
 " To-night, half an hour ago," (wrote the 
 dying man) " I had a visit from your friend, 
 Weirmarsh. We were alone, with none to over- 
 hear, so I told him plainly that I intended to 
 expose him. At first he became defiant, but 
 presently he grew apprehensive, and on taking 
 his leave he made a foul accusation against you.
 
 Sir Hugh Tells His Story 313 
 
 Then, laughing at my refusal to accept his 
 bribe, the scoundrel took my hand in farewell. 
 He must have had a pin stuck in his glove, for I 
 felt a slight scratch across the palm. At the 
 moment I was too furious to pay any attention 
 to it, but ten minutes after he had gone I began 
 to experience a strange faintness. I feel now 
 fainter . . . and fainter ... A strange feel- 
 ing has crept over me ... I am dying . . . 
 poisoned ... by that king of thieves! 
 
 " Come to me quickly ... at once . . . 
 Enid . . . and tell me that what he has said 
 against you ... is not true. It ... it cannot 
 be true. . . . Don't delay. Come quickly. . . . 
 Can't write more. Harry." 
 
 Walter paused for a second after reading 
 through that dramatic letter, the last effort of a 
 dying man. 
 
 " And that scoundrel Weirmarsh killed him 
 because he feared exposure," he remarked in a 
 low, hard voice. " Why did you not bring this 
 forward at the inquest? " 
 
 " For several reasons," replied the girl, 
 feared the doctor's reprisals. Besides, he might 
 easily have denied the allegation, or he might 
 have used the same means to close my lips if he 
 had suspected that I had learnt the truth." 
 
 " The dead man's story is no doubt true," de-
 
 3H The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 clared Fetherston. " He used some deadly poi- 
 son one of the newly discovered ones which 
 leaves no trace to kill his victim who, in all 
 probability, was not his first. Your stepfather 
 does not know, of course, that this letter exists? " 
 
 " No. I have kept it from everyone. I said 
 that the summons I received from him I had de- 
 stroyed." 
 
 " In the circumstances I will ask you, Enid, 
 to allow me to retain it," he said. " I want to 
 show it to Trendall." 
 
 ' You may show it to Mr. Trendall, but I 
 ask you, for the present, to make no further use 
 of it," replied the girl. 
 
 He moved a step closer to her and caught her 
 disengaged hand in his, the glad light in her eyes 
 telling him that his action was one which she 
 reciprocated, yet some sense of her unworthiness 
 of this great love causing her to hesitate. 
 
 " I will promise," said the strong, manly fel- 
 low in a low tone. " I ought to have made al- 
 lowances, but, in the horror of my suspicion, I 
 did not, and I'm sorry. I love you, Enid I had 
 never really loved until I met you, until I held 
 your hand in mine ! " 
 
 Enid's true, overburdened heart was only too 
 ready to respond to his fervent appeal. She 
 suffered her lover to draw her to himself, and
 
 Sir Hugh Tells His Story 315 
 
 their lips met in a long, passionate caress that 
 blotted out all the past. He spoke quick, rapid 
 words of ardent affection. To Enid, after all 
 the hideous events she had passed through, it 
 seemed too happy to be true that so much bliss 
 was in store for her, and she remained there, 
 with Walter's arm around her, silently content, 
 that fervid kiss being the first he had ever im- 
 printed upon her full red lips. 
 
 Thus they remained in each other's arms, 
 their two true hearts beating in unison, their 
 kisses mingling, their twin souls united in the 
 first moments of their newly-found ecstasy of 
 perfect love. 
 
 The fight had been a fierce one, but their true 
 hearts had won, and, as they whispered each oth- 
 er's fond affection, Enid promised to be the 
 wife of the honest, fearless man of whose mag- 
 nificent work in the detection of crime the coun- 
 try had never dreamed. They read his books 
 and were enthralled by them, but little did they 
 think that he was one of the never-sleeping 
 watch-dogs upon great criminals, or that the 
 sweet-faced girl, who was now his affianced wife, 
 had risked her life, her love, her honour, in order 
 to assist him. 
 
 Next afternoon Sir Hugh called upon Wal- 
 ter at his dingy chambers in Holies Street, and
 
 316 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 as they sat together the old general, after a long 
 and somewhat painful silence, exclaimed: 
 
 " I know, Fetherston, that you must be mys- 
 tified how, in my position, I should have become 
 implicated in the doings of that criminal gang." 
 
 * Yes, I am," Walter declared. 
 
 ' Well, briefly, it occurred in this way," said 
 the old officer. " While I was a colonel in India 
 just before the war I was very hard pressed for 
 money and had committed a fault an indiscre- 
 tion for which I might easily have been dismissed 
 the army. On being recalled to London, after 
 war had been declared, I was approached by the 
 fellow Weirmarsh who, to my horror, had, by 
 some unaccountable means, obtained knowledge 
 of my indiscretion! At first he adopted a high 
 moral tone, upbraiding me for my fault and 
 threatening to inform against me. This I 
 begged him not to do. For a fortnight he kept 
 me in an agony of despair, when one day he 
 called me to him and unfolded to me a scheme 
 by which I could make a considerable amount of 
 money; indeed, he promised to pay me a yearly 
 sum for my assistance." 
 
 ' You thought him toibe a doctor and noth- 
 ing else?" Walter said. 
 
 " Exactly. I never dreamed until quite re- 
 cently that he was head of such a formidable
 
 Sir Hugh Tells His Story 317 
 
 gang, whose operations were upon so extensive 
 a scale as to endanger our national credit," re- 
 plied Sir Hugh. " At the time he approached 
 me I was in the Pay Department, and many 
 thousands of pounds in Treasury notes were 
 passing through my safe weekly. His sugges- 
 tion was that I should exchange the notes as they 
 came to me from the Treasury for those with 
 which he would supply me, and which, on show- 
 ing me a specimen, I failed to distinguish from 
 the real. I hesitated; I was hard up. To sus- 
 tain my position after my knighthood money 
 was absolutely necessary to me, and for a long 
 time I had been unable to make both ends meet. 
 The bait he dangled before me was sufficiently 
 tempting, and and well, I fell ! " he groaned, 
 and then after a pause he went on: 
 
 ' Whence Weirmarsh obtained the packets 
 of notes which I substituted for genuine ones 
 was, of course, a mystery, but once having taken 
 the false step it was not my business to inquire. 
 Not until quite recently did I discover his real 
 position as chief of a gang of international 
 crooks, who combined forgery with blackmail 
 and theft upon a colossal scale. That he intend- 
 ed Bellairs should furnish him with an impres- 
 sion of the safe key of a diamond dealer in Hat- 
 ton Garden is now plain. Bellairs defied him
 
 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 and threatened to denounce him to the police. 
 Therefore, the poor fellow's lips were quickly 
 closed by the scoundrel, who would hesitate at 
 nothing in order to preserve his guilty secrets." 
 
 " But what caused you to break from him at 
 last? " inquired Walter eagerly. 
 
 " Just before the armistice he and his friends 
 had conceived a gigantic scheme by which 
 Europe and the United States were to be flooded 
 with great quantities of spurious paper cur- 
 rency, and though it would, when discovered as 
 it must have been sooner or later have injured 
 the national credit, would bring huge fortunes 
 to him and his friends. He was pressing me to 
 send in my papers and go to America, there to 
 act as their agent at a huge remuneration. They 
 wanted a man of standing who should be above 
 suspicion, and he had decided to use me as his 
 tool to engineer the gigantic frauds." 
 
 "And you, happily, refused?" 
 ' Yes. I resolved, rather than act further, 
 to relinquish the handsome payments he made 
 to me from time to time. For that reason I got 
 transferred from the Pay Department, so that 
 I could no longer be of much use to him, a fact 
 which annoyed him greatly." 
 
 " And he threatened you ? " 
 ' Yes. He was constantly doing so. He
 
 Sir Hugh Tells His Story 319 
 
 wanted me to go to New York. Enid helped 
 me and gave me courage to defy him which I 
 did. Then he conceived a dastardly revenge by 
 anonymously denouncing Le Pontois as a for- 
 ger, and implicating both Enid and myself. 
 He contrived that some money I brought from 
 England should be exchanged for spurious 
 notes, and these Paul unsuspiciously gave into 
 the Credit Lyonnais. Had it not been for your 
 timely warning, Fetherston, we should both 
 have also been arrested in France without a 
 doubt." 
 
 " Yes," replied the other. " I was watching, 
 and realised your peril, though I confess that 
 my position was one of extreme difficulty. I, of 
 course, did not know the actual truth, and, to 
 be frank, I suspected both Enid and yourself of 
 being implicated in some very serious crime." 
 
 " So we were," he said in a low, hard voice. 
 
 " True. But you have both been the means 
 of revealing to the Treasury a state of things 
 of which they never dreamed, and by turning 
 King's evidence and giving the names and ad- 
 dresses of members of the gang in Brussels and 
 Paris, all of whom are now under arrest, you 
 have saved the country from considerable peril. 
 Had the plot succeeded, a very serious state of 
 things must have resulted, for the whole of our
 
 320 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 paper currency would have been suspected. For 
 that reason the authorities have, I understand, 
 now that they have arrested the gang and seized 
 their presses, decided to hush up the whole mat- 
 ter." 
 
 * You know this? " asked Sir Hugh, sudden- 
 ly brightening. 
 
 ' Yes, Trendall told me so this morning." 
 "Ah! Thank Heaven I" he gasped, much 
 relieved. " Then I can again face the world a 
 free man. God knows how terribly I suffered 
 through all those years of the war. I paid for 
 my fault very dearly I assure you, Fether- 
 ston."
 
 CHAPTER XXXII 
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 WHAT remains to be related is quickly told, 
 though the public have, until now, been in igno- 
 rance of the truth. 
 
 Out of evil a great good had come. At noon 
 on the following day Trendall had an interview 
 with Josef Blot, alias Weirmarsh, in his cell at 
 Chelmsford, whither he had been conveyed by 
 the police. What happened at that interview 
 will never be known. It is safe to surmise, how- 
 ever, that the tragic letter of Harry Bellairs was 
 shown to him Enid having withdrawn her re- 
 quest that no use should be made of it. An hour 
 after the chief of the Criminal Investigation De- 
 partment had left, the prisoner was found lying 
 stark dead, suffering from a scratch on the wrist, 
 inflicted with a short, hollow needle which he had 
 carried concealed behind the lapel of his coat. 
 
 Greatly to the discomfiture of the gang, the 
 man Granier and his servant Pietro were extra- 
 dited to France for trial, while a quantity of 
 jewellery, works of art, money and negotiable 
 securities of all sorts were unearthed from a villa 
 near Fontainebleau and restored to their owners. 
 
 321
 
 322 The Doctor of Pimlico 
 
 A fortnight after Weirmarsh's death, at St. 
 George's, Hanover Square, Enid Orlebar be- 
 came the wife of Walter Fetherston, and among 
 the guests at the wedding were a number of 
 strange men in whose position or profession no- 
 body pretended to be interested. Truth to tell, 
 they were officials of various grades from Scot- 
 land Yard, surely the most welcome among the 
 wedding guests. 
 
 Though Walter and Enid live in idyllic hap- 
 piness in a charming old ivy-grown manor house 
 in Sussex, with level lawns and shady rose ar- 
 bours, they still retain that old cottage at Ids- 
 worth, where a plausible excuse has been given 
 to the country folk for " Mr. Maltwood " having 
 been compelled to change his name. No pair in 
 the whole of England are happier to-day. 
 
 No man holds his wife more dear, or has a 
 more loving and hopeful companion. Their life 
 is one of perfect and abiding peace and of sweet 
 content. 
 
 Walter Fetherston is not by any means idle, 
 for in his quiet country home he still writes those 
 marvellous mystery stories which hold the world 
 breathlessly enthralled, but he continues to de- 
 vote half his time to combating the ingenuity 
 of the greater criminals with all its attendant ex- 
 citement and adventure, which are reflected in 
 his popular romances.
 
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