George Lomax suddenly appeared, Dr. Cartwright by his side.
'Ah, there you are, Battle . You'll be relieved to hear that there's nothing seriously wrong with O'Rourke.'
'I never thought there would be much wrong with Mr. O'Rourke,' said Battle .
'He's had a strong hypodermic administered to him,' said the doctor. 'He'll wake perfectly all right in the morning. Perhaps a bit of a head, perhaps not. Now then, young man, let's look at this bullet wound of yours.'
'Come on, nurse,' said Jimmy to Loraine. 'Come and hold the basin or my hand. Witness a strong man's agony. You know the stunt.'
Jimmy, Loraine and the doctor went off together. Bundle continued to throw agonised glances in the direction of Superintendent Battle, who had been buttonholed by George. The Superintendent waited patiently till a pause occurred in George's loquacity. He then swiftly took advantage of it.
'I wonder, sir, if I might have a word privately with Sir Stanley? In the little study at the end there.'
'Certainly,' said George. 'Certainly. I'll go and fetch him at once.'
He hurried off upstairs again. Battle drew Bundle swiftly into the drawing-room and shut the door.
'Now, Lady Eileen, what is it?'
'I'll tell you as quickly as I can – but it's rather long and complicated.'
As concisely as she could, Bundle related her introduction to the Seven Dials Club and her subsequent adventures there. When she had finished, Superintendent Battle drew a long breath. For once, his facial woodenness was laid aside.
'Remarkable,' he said. 'Remarkable. I wouldn't have believed it possible – even for you, Lady Eileen. I ought to have known better.'
'But you did give me a hint, Superintendent Battle. You told me to ask Bill Eversleigh.'
'It's dangerous to give people like you a hint, Lady Eileen. I never dreamt of your going to the lengths you have.'
'Well, it's all right, Superintendent Battle. My death doesn't lie at your door.'
'Not yet, it doesn't,' said Battle grimly.
He stood as though in thought, turning things over in his mind.
'What Mr. Thesiger was about, letting you run into danger like that, I can't think,' he said presently.
'He didn't know till afterwards,' said Bundle. 'I'm not a complete mug, Superintendent Battle. And, anyway, he's got his hands full looking after Miss Wade.'
'Is that so?' said the Superintendent. 'Ah!'
He twinkled a little.
'I shall have to detail Mr. Eversleigh to look after you, Lady Eileen.'
'Bill!' said Bundle contemptuously. 'But, Superintendent Battle, you haven't heard the end of my story. The woman I saw there – Anna – No. 1. Yes, No. 1 is the Countess Radzky.'
And rapidly she went on to describe her recognition of the mole.
To her surprise the Superintendent hemmed and hawed.
'A mole isn't much to go upon, Lady Eileen. Two women might have an identical mole very easily. You must remember that the Countess Radzky is a very well-known figure in Hungary .'
'Then this isn't the real Countess Radzky. I tell you I'm sure this is the same woman I saw there. And look at her tonight – the way we found her. I don't believe she ever fainted at all.'
'Oh, I shouldn't say that, Lady Eileen. That empty shell striking the bookcase beside her might have frightened any woman half out of her wits.'
'But what was she doing there anyway? One doesn't come down to look for a book with an electric torch.'
Battle scratched his cheek. He seemed unwilling to speak. He began to pace up and down the room, as though making up his mind. At last he turned to the girl.
'See here, Lady Eileen, I'm going to trust you. The Countess's conduct is suspicious. I know that as well as you do. It's very suspicious – but we've got to go carefully. There mustn't be any unpleasantness with the Embassies. One has got to be sure.'
'I see. If you were sure…'
'There's something else. During the war, Lady Eileen, there was a great outcry about German spies being left at large. Busybodies wrote letters to the papers about it. We paid no attention. Hard words didn't hurt us. The small fry were left alone. Why? Because through them, sooner or later, we got the big fellow – the man at the top.'
'You mean?'
'Don't bother about what I mean, Lady Eileen. But remember this. I know all about the Countess. And I want her let alone.'
'And now,' added Superintendent Battle ruefully, 'I've got to think of something to say to Sir Stanley Digby!'
Chapter 23
SUPERINTENDENT BATTLE IN CHARGE
It was ten o'clock on the following morning. The sun poured in through the windows of the library, where Superintendent Battle had been at work since six. On a summons from him, George Lomax, Sir Oswald Coote and Jimmy Thesiger had just joined him, having repaired the fatigues of the night with a substantial breakfast.
Jimmy's arm was in a sling, but he bore little other trace of the night's affair.
The Superintendent eyed all three of them benevolently, somewhat with the air of a kindly curator explaining a museum to little boys. On the table beside him were various objects, neatly labelled. Amongst them Jimmy recognised Leopold.
'Ah, Superintendent,' said George, 'I have been anxious to know how you have progressed. Have you caught the man?'
'He'll take a lot of catching, he will,' said the Superintendent easily.
His failure in that respect did not appear to rankle with him.
George Lomax did not look particularly well pleased. He detested levity of any kind.
'I've got everything taped out pretty clearly,' went on the detective.
He took up two objects from the table. 'Here we've got the two bullets. The largest is a .455, fired from Mr. Thesiger's Colt automatic. Grazed the window sash and I found it embedded in the trunk of that cedar tree. This little fellow was fired from the Mauser .25. After passing through Mr. Thesiger's arm, it embedded itself in this armchair here. As for the pistol itself –'
'Well?' said Sir Oswald eagerly. 'Any fingerprints?'
Battle shook his head.
'The man who handled it wore gloves,' he said slowly.
'A pity,' said Sir Oswald.
'A man who knew his business would wear gloves. Am I right in thinking, Sir Oswald, that you found this pistol just about twenty yards from the bottom of the steps leading up to the terrace?'
Sir Oswald stepped to the window.
'Yes, almost exactly, I should say.'
'I don't want to find fault, but it would have been wiser on your part, sir, to leave it exactly as you found it.'
'I am sorry,' said Sir Oswald stiffly.
'Oh, it doesn't matter. I've been able to reconstruct things. There were your footprints, you see, leading up from the bottom of the garden, and a place where you had obviously stopped and stooped down, and a kind of dent in the grass which was highly suggestive. By the way, what was your theory of the pistol being there?'
'I presumed that it had been dropped by the man in his flight.'
Battle shook his head.
'Not dropped, Sir Oswald. There are two points against that. To begin with, there are only one set of
