here. So we say our farewells now and depart. I am right, am I not?'
The words were, in a sense, conventional enough. The manner, too, was conventional. The glance that swept round the assembly of guests might have been no more than courtesy. Yet in actuality the words were a plea. In effect, the Minister was saying, 'You've seen, gentlemen, there is nothing here, nothing of what you suspected and feared. That is a great relief and we can now leave with a clear conscience.'
But in the silence a voice spoke. It was the quiet, deferential, well-bred English voice of Mr. Jessop. He spoke to the Minister – in a Britannic though idiomatic French.
'With your permission, Sir,' he said, 'and if I may do so, I would like to ask a favour of our kind host.'
'Certainly, certainly. Of course, Mr. – ah – Mr. Jessop – yes, yes?'
Jessop addressed himself solemnly to Dr. Van Heidem. He did not look ostensibly to Mr. Aristides.
'We've met so many of your people,' he said, 'Quite bewildering. But there's an old friend of mine here that I'd rather like to have a word with. I wonder if it could be arranged before I go?'
'A friend of yours?' Dr. Van Heidem said politely, surprised.
'Well, two friends really,' said Jessop. 'There's a woman, Mrs. Betterton. Olive Betterton. I believe her husband's working here. Tom Betterton. Used to be at Harwell and before that in America. I'd very much like to have a word with them both before I go.'
Dr. Van Heidem's reactions were perfect. His eyes opened in wide and polite surprise. He frowned in a puzzled way.
'Betterton – Mrs. Betterton – no, I'm afraid we have no one of that name here.'
'There's an American, too,' said Jessop. 'Andrew Peters. Research chemistry, I believe, is his line. I'm right, sir, aren't I?' He turned deferentially to the American Ambassador.
The Ambassador was a shrewd, middle-aged man with keen blue eyes. He was a man of character as well as diplomatic ability. His eyes met Jessop's. He took a full minute to decide, and then he spoke.
'Why, yes,' he said. 'That's so. Andrew Peters. I'd like to see him.'
Van Heidem's polite bewilderment grew. Jessop unobtrusively shot a quick glance at Aristides. The little yellow face betrayed no knowledge of anything amiss, no surprise, no disquietude. He looked merely uninterested.
'Andrew Peters? No, I'm afraid, Your Excellency, you've got your facts wrong. We've no one of that name here. I'm afraid I don't even know the name.'
'You know the name of Thomas Betterton, don't you?' said Jessop.
Just for a second Van Heidem hesitated. His head turned very slightly towards the old man in the chair, but he caught himself back in time.
'Thomas Betterton,' he said. 'Why, yes, I think -'
One of the gentlemen of the press spoke up quickly on that cue.
'Thomas Betterton,' he said. 'Why, I should say he was pretty well big news. Big news six months ago when he disappeared. Why, he's made headlines in the papers all over Europe. The police have been looking for him here, there and everywhere. Do you mean to say he's been here in this place all the time?'
'No.' Van Heidem spoke sharply. 'Someone, I fear, has been misinforming you. A hoax, perhaps. You have seen today all our workers at the Unit. You have seen everything.'
'Not quite everything I think,' said Jessop, quietly. 'There's a young man called Ericsson, too,' he added, 'and Dr. Louis Barron, and possibly Mrs. Calvin Baker.'
'Ah.' Dr. Van Heidem seemed to receive enlightenment. 'But those people were killed in Morocco – in a plane crash. I remember it perfectly now. At least I remember Ericsson was in the crash and Dr. Louis Barron. Ah, France sustained a great loss that day. A man such as Louis Barron is hard to replace.' He shook his head. 'I do not know anything about a Mrs. Calvin Baker, but I do seem to remember that there was an English or American woman on that plane. It might well perhaps have been this Mrs. Betterton, of whom you speak. Yes, it was all very sad.' He looked across enquiringly at Jessop. 'I do not know, Monsieur, why you should suppose that these people were coming here. It may possibly be that Dr. Barron mentioned at one time that he hoped to visit our settlement here while he was in North Africa. That may possibly have given rise to a misconception.'
'So you tell me,' said Jessop, 'that I am mistaken? That these people are none of them here.'
'But how can they be, my dear sir, since they were all killed in this plane accident The bodies were recovered, I believe.'
'The bodies recovered were too badly charred for identification.' Jessop spoke the last words with deliberation and significance.
There was a little stir behind him. A thin, precise, very attenuated voice said,
'Do I understand you to say that there was no precise identification?' Lord Alverstoke was leaning forward, his hand to his ear. Under bushy, overhanging eyebrows his small keen eyes looked into Jessop's.
'There could be no formal identification, my lord,' said Jessop, 'and I have reason to believe these people survived that accident.'
'Believe?' said Lord Alverstoke, with displeasure in his thin, high voice.
'I should have said I had evidence of survival.'
'Evidence? Of what nature, Mr. – er – er – Jessop.'
'Mrs. Betterton was wearing a choker of false pearls on the day she left Fez for Marrakesh,' said Jessop. 'One of these pearls was found at a distance of half a mile from the burnt out plane.'
'How can you state positively that the pearl found actually came from Mrs. Betterton's necklace?'
'Because all the pearls of that necklace had had a mark put upon them invisible to the naked eye, but recognisable under a strong lens.'
'Who put that mark on them?'
'I did, Lord Alverstoke, in the presence of my colleague, here, Monsieur Leblanc.'
'You put those marks – you had a reason in marking those pearls in that special fashion?'
'Yes, my lord. I had reason to believe that Mrs. Betterton would lead me to her husband, Thomas Betterton, against whom a warrant is out.' Jessop continued. 'Two more of these pearls came to light. Each on stages of a route between where the plane was burnt out and the settlement where we now are. Enquiries in the places where these pearls were found resulted in a description of six people, roughly approximating to those people who were supposed to have been burnt in the plane. One of these passengers had also been supplied with a glove impregnated with luminous, phosphorous paint. That mark was found on a car which had transported these passengers part of the way here.'
Lord Alverstoke remarked in his dry, judicial voice,
'Very remarkable.'
In the big chair Mr. Aristides stirred. His eyelids blinked once or twice rapidly. Then he asked a question.
'Where were the last traces of this party of people found?'
'At a disused airfield, Sir.' He gave precise location.
'That is many hundreds of miles from here,' said Mr. Aristides. 'Granted that your very interesting speculations are correct, that for some reason the accident was faked, these passengers, I gather, then took off from this disused airport for some unknown destination. Since that airport is many hundreds of miles from here, I really cannot see on what you base your belief that these people are here. Why should they be?'
'There are certain very good reasons, sir. A signal was picked up by one of our searching airplanes. The signal was brought to Monsieur Leblanc here. Commencing with a special code recognition signal, it gave the information that the people in question were at a Leper Settlement.'
'I find this remarkable,' said Mr. Aristides. 'Very remarkable. But it seems to me that there is no doubt that an attempt has been made to mislead you. These people are not here.' He spoke with a quiet, definite decision. 'You are at perfect liberty to search the settlement if you like.'
'I doubt if we should find anything, sir,' said Jessop, 'not, that is, by a superficial search, although,' he added deliberately, 'I am aware of the area at which the search should begin.'
'Indeed! And where is that?'
'In the fourth corridor from the second laboratory turning to the left at the end of the passage there.'
There was an abrupt movement from Dr. Van Heidem. Two glasses crashed from the tables to the floor.
Jessop looked at him, smiling.
'You see, Doctor,' he said, 'we are well informed.'
