“I am about to lock my door,” he said calmly. “I presume that the arrangements we have agreed upon will be carried out?”
“Yes, sir,” answered the commissioner, quietly.
Sir Philip was about to speak, but he checked himself.
After a moment he spoke again.
“I have been a just man according to my lights,” he said half to himself. “Whatever happens I am satisfied that I am doing the right thing.—What is that?”
Through the corridor there came a faint roar.
“The people—they are cheering you,” said Falmouth, who just before had made a tour of inspection.
The minister’s lip curled in disdain, and the familiar acid crept into his voice.
“They will be terribly disappointed if nothing happens,” he said bitterly. “The people! God save me from the people, their sympathy, their applause, their insufferable pity.”
He turned and pushed open the door of his study, slowly closed the heavy portal, and the two men heard the snick of the lock as he turned the key.
Falmouth looked at his watch.
“Forty minutes,” was his laconic comment.
In the dark stood the Four Men.
“It is nearly time,” said the voice of Manfred, and Thery shuffled forward and groped on the floor for something.
“Let me strike a match,” he grumbled in Spanish.
“No!”
It was Poiccart’s sharp voice that arrested him; it was Gonsalez who stooped quickly and passed sensitive fingers over the floor. He found one wire and placed it in Thery’s hand, then he reached up and found the other, and Thery deftly tied them together.
“Is it not time?” asked Thery, short of breath from his exertions.
“Wait.”
Manfred was examining the illuminated dial of his watch. In silence they waited.
“It is time,” said Manfred solemnly, and Thery stretched out his hand.
Stretched out his hand—and groaned and collapsed.
The three heard the groan, felt rather than saw the swaying figure of the man, and heard the thud of him as he struck the floor.
“What has happened?” whispered a tremorless voice; it was Gonsalez.
Manfred was at Thery’s side fumbling at his shirt.
“Thery had bungled and paid the consequence,” he said in a hushed voice.
“But Ramon—”
“We shall see, we shall see,” said Manfred, still with his fingers over the heart of the fallen man.
That forty minutes was the longest that Falmouth ever remembered spending. He had tried to pass it pleasantly by recounting some of the famous criminal cases in which he had played a leading role. But he found his tongue wandering after his mind. He grew incoherent, almost hysterical. The word had been passed round that there was to be no talking in tones above a whisper, and absolute silence reigned, save an occasional sibilant murmur as a necessary question was asked or answered.
Policemen were established in every room, on the roof, in the basement, in every corridor, and each man was armed. Falmouth looked round. He sat in the secretary’s office, having arranged for Hamilton to be at the House. Every door stood wide open, wedged back, so that no group of policemen should be out of sight of another.
“I cannot think what can happen,” he whispered for the twentieth time to his superior. “It is impossible for those fellows to keep their promise—absolutely impossible.”
“The question to my mind is, whether they will keep their other promise,” was the commissioner’s reply, “whether, having found that they have failed they will give up their attempt. One thing is certain,” he proceeded, “if Ramon comes out of this alive, his rotten bill will pass without opposition.”
He looked at his watch. To be exact, he had held his watch in his hand since Sir Philip had entered his room.
“It wants five minutes,” he sighed anxiously.
He walked softly to the door of Sir Philip’s room and listened.
“I can hear nothing,” he said.
The next five minutes passed more slowly than any of the preceding.
“It is just on the hour,” said Falmouth in a strained voice, “we have—”
The distant chime of Big Ben boomed once.
“The hour!” he whispered, and both men listened.
“Two,” muttered Falmouth, counting the strokes.
“Three.”
“Four.”
“Five—what’s that?” he muttered quickly.
“I heard nothing—yes, I heard something.” He sprang to the door and bent his head to the level of the keyhole. “What is that? What—”
Then from the room came a quick sharp cry of pain, a crash—and silence.
“Quick—this way, men!” shouted Falmouth and threw his weight against the door.
It did not yield a fraction of an inch.
“Together!”
Three burly constables flung themselves against the panels, and the door smashed open.
Falmouth and the commissioner ran into the room.
“My God!” cried Falmouth in horror.
Sprawled across the table at which he had been sitting was the figure of the foreign secretary.
The paraphernalia that littered his table had been thrown to the floor as in a struggle.
The commissioner stepped to the fallen man and raised him. One look at the face was sufficient.
“Dead!” he whispered hoarsely. He looked around—save for the police and the dead man the room was empty.
XII
A Newspaper Cutting
The Court was again crowded today in anticipation of the evidence of the assistant-commissioner of police and Sir Francis Katling, the famous surgeon.
Before the proceedings recommenced the coroner remarked that he had received a great number of letters from all kinds of people containing theories, some of them peculiarly fantastic, as to the cause of Sir Philip Ramon’s death.
“The police inform me that they are eager to receive suggestions,” said the coroner, “and will welcome any view however bizarre.”
The assistant-commissioner of police was the first witness called, and gave in detail the story of the events that had led up to the finding of the late secretary’s dead body. He then went on to describe the appearance of the room. Heavy bookcases filled two sides of the room, the third or southwest was pierced with three windows, the fourth was occupied by a case containing maps arranged on the roller principle.
Were the windows fastened?—Yes.
And adequately protected?—Yes; by wooden folding shutters sheathed with steel.
Was there any indication that these had been tampered with?—None whatever.
Did you institute a search of the room?—Yes; a minute search.
By the foreman
