This Twist, now. After all, what about him? He had come from nowhere to settle down in Worcestershire, ostensibly in order to conduct a health-farm. But what if that health-farm were a mere blind for more dastardly work? After all, it was surely a commonplace that your scientific criminal invariably adopted some specious cover of respectability for his crimes. . . .
Into the radius of John's vision there came Mr Thomas G. Molloy, walking placidly beside the moat with his dashing daughter. It seemed to John as if he had been sent at just this moment for a purpose. Whathe wanted above all things was a keen-minded, sensible man of the world with whom to discuss these suspicions of his, and who was better qualified for this rôle than Mr Molloy? Long since he had fallen under the spell of the other's magnetic personality, and had admired the breadth of his intellect. Thomas G. Molloy was, it seemed to him, the ideal confidant.
He left the room hurriedly, and ran down the stairs.
III
Mr Molloy was still strolling beside the moat when John arrived. He greeted him with his usual bluff kindliness. Soapy, like John some half-hour earlier, was feeling amiably disposed towards all mankind this morning.
'Well, well, well!' said Soapy. 'So you're back? Did you have a pleasant time in London?'
'All right, thanks. I wanted to see you....'
'You've heard about this unfortunate business last night?'
'Yes. It was about that. . . .'
'I have never been so upset by anything in my life,' said Mr Molloy. 'By pure bad luck Dolly here and myself went over to Birmingham after dinner to see a show, and in our absence the outrage must have occurred. I venture to say,' went on Mr Molloy, a sternlook creeping into his eyes, 'that if only I'd been on the spot the thing could never have happened. My hearing's good, and I'm pretty quick on a trigger, Mr Carroll – pretty quick, let me tell you. It would have taken a right smart burglar to have gotten past me.'
'You bet it would,' said Dolly. 'Gee! It's a pity. And the man didn't leave a single trace, did he?'
'A finger-print – or it may have been a thumb-print – on the sill of the window, honey. That was all. And I don't see what good that's going to do us. You can't round up the population of England and ask to see their thumbs.'
'And outside of that not so much as a single trace. Isn't it too bad! From start to finish not a soul set eyes on the fellow.'
'Yes they did,' said John. 'That's what I came to talk to you about. One of the servants heard a noise and came out and saw him going down the staircase.'
If he had failed up to this point to secure the undivided attention of his audience, he had got it now. Miss Molloy seemed suddenly to become all eyes, and so tremendous was the joy and relief of Mr Molloy that he actually staggered.
'Saw him?' exclaimed Miss Molloy.
'Sus-saw him?' echoed her father, scarcely able to speak in his delight.
'Yes. Do you by any chance know a man named Twist?'
'Twist?' said Mr Molloy, still speaking with difficulty. He wrinkled his forehead. 'Twist? Do I know a man named Twist, honey?'
'The name seems kind of familiar,' admitted Miss Molloy.
'He runs a place called Healthward Ho about twenty miles from here. My uncle stayed there for a couple of weeks. It's a place where people go to get into condition – a sort of health-farm, I suppose you would call it.'
'Of course, yes. I have heard Mr Carmody speak of his friend Twist. But . . .'
'Apparently he called here the other day – to see my uncle, I suppose, and this servant I'm speaking about saw him and is convinced that he was the burglar.'
'Improbable, surely?' Mr Molloy seemed still to be having a little trouble with his breath. 'Surely not very probable? This man Twist, from what you tell me, is a personal friend of your uncle. Why, therefore . . . Besides, if he owns a prosperous business . . .'
John was not to be put off the trail by mere superficial argument. Doctor Watson may be slow at starting, but, once started, he is a bloodhound for tenacity.
'I've thought of all that. I admit it did seem curious at first. But if you come to look into it you can see that the very thing a burglar who wanted to operate in these parts would do is to start some business that would make people unsuspicious of him.'
Mr Molloy shook his head.
'It sounds far-fetched to me.'
John's opinion of his sturdy good sense began to diminish.
'Well, anyhow,' he said in his solid way, 'this servant is sure he recognized Twist, and one can't do any harm by going over there and having a look at the man. I've got quite a good excuse for seeing him. My uncle's having a dispute about his bill, and I can say I came over to discuss it.'
'Yes,' said Mr Molloy in a strained voice. 'But—'
'Sure you can,' said Miss Molloy, with sudden animation. 'Smart of you to think of that. You need an excuse, if you don't want to make this Twist fellow suspicious.'
'Exactly,' said John.
He looked at the girl with something resembling approval.
'And there's another thing,' proceeded Miss Molloy, warming to her subject. 'Don't forget that this bird, if he's the man that did the burgling last night, has a cut finger or thumb. If you find this Twist is going around with sticking-plaster on him, why then that'll be evidence.'
John's approval deepened.
'That's a great idea,' he agreed. 'What I was thinking was that I wanted to find out if Twist has a cold in the head.'
'A kuk-kuk-kuk . . .?' said Mr Molloy.
'Yes. You see, the burglar had. He was sneezing all the time, my informant tells me.'
'Well, say, this begins to look like the goods,' cried Miss Molloy gleefully. 'If this fellow has a cut thumb and a cold in the head, there's nothing to it. It's all over except tearing off the false whiskers and saying "I am Hawkshaw, the Detective!" Say, listen. You get that little car of yours out and you and I will go right over to Healthward Ho, now. You see, if I come along that'll make him all the more unsuspicious. We'll tell him I'm a girl with a brother that's been whooping it up a little too hearty for some time past, and I want to make inquiries with the idea of putting him where he can't get the stuff for awhile. I'm sure you're on the right track. This bird Twist is the villain of the piece, I'll bet a million dollars. As you say, a fellow that wanted to burgle houses in these parts just naturally would settle down and pretend to be something respectable. You go and get that car out, Mr Carroll, and we'll be off right away.'
John reflected. Filled though he was with the enthusiasm of the chase, he could not forget that his time today was earmarked for other and higher things than the investigation of the mysterious Doctor Twist of Healthward Ho.
'I must be back here by a quarter to one,' he said.
'Why?'
'I must.'
'Well, that's all right. We're not going to spend the weekend with this guy. We're simply going to take a look at him. As soon as we've done that, we come right home and turn the thing over to the police. It's only twenty miles. You'll be back here again before twelve.'
'Of course,' said John. 'You're perfectly right. I'll have the car out in a couple of minutes.'
He hurried off. His views concerning Miss Molloy now were definitely favourable. She might not be the sort of girl he could ever like, she might not be the sort of girl he wanted staying at the Hall, but it was idle to deny that she had her redeeming qualities. About her intelligence, for instance, there was, he felt, no doubt whatsoever.
And yet it was with regard to this intelligence that Soapy Molloy was at this very moment entertaining doubts of the gravest kind. His eyes were protruding a little, and he uttered an odd, strangled sound.
'It's all right, you poor sap,' said Dolly, meeting his shocked gaze with a confident unconcern.
Soapy found speech.
'All right? You say it's all right? How's it all right? If you hadn't pulled all that stuff . . .'
'Say, listen!' said Dolly urgently. 'Where's your sense? He would have gone over to
see Chimp anyway, wouldn't he? Nothing we could have done would have headed him off from that, would it? And he'd have noticed Chimp had a cut finger, without my telling him, wouldn't he? All I've done is to make him think I'm on the level and working in cahoots with him.'
'What's the use of that?'
'I'll tell you what use it is. I know what I'm doing. Listen, Soapy, you just race into the house and get those knock-out drops and give them to me. And make it snappy,' said Dolly.
As when on a day of rain and storm there appears among the clouds a tiny gleam of blue, so now, at those magic words 'knockout drops', did there flicker into Mr Molloy's sombre face a faint suggestion of hope.
'Don't you worry, Soapy. I've got this thing well in hand. When we've gone, you jump to the 'phone and get Chimp on the wire and tell him this guy and I are on our way over. Tell him I'm bringing the kayo drops and I'll slip them to him as soon as I arrive. Tell him to be sure to have something to drink handy and to see that this bird gets a taste of it.'
'I get you, pettie!' Mr Molloy's manner was full of a sort of awe-struck reverence, like that of some humble adherent of Napoleon listening to his great leader outlining plans for a forthcoming campaign; but nevertheless it was tinged with doubt. He had always admired his wife's broad, spacious outlook, but she was apt sometimes, he considered, in her fresh young enthusiasm, to overlook details. 'But, pettie,' he said, 'is this wise? Don't forget you're not in Chicago now. I mean, supposing you do put this fellow to sleep, he's going to wake up pretty soon, isn't he? And when he does won't he raise an awful holler?'
'I've got that all fixed. I don't know what sort of staff Chimp keeps over at that joint of his, but he's probably got assistants and all like that. Well, you tell him to tell them that there's a young lady coming over with a brother that wants looking after, and this brother has got to be given a sleeping-draught and locked away somewhere to keep him from getting violent and doing somebody an injury. That'll get him out of the way long enough for us to collect the stuff and clear out. It's rapid action now, Soapy. Now that Chimp has gummed the game by letting himself be seen we've got to move quick. We've got to make our getaway today. So don't you go off wandering about the fields picking daisies after I've gone. You stick round that 'phone, because I'll be calling you before long. See?'
'Honey,' said Mr Molloy devoutly, 'I always said you were the brains of the firm, and I always will say it. I'd never have thought of a thing like this myself in a million years.'
IV
It was about an hour later that Sergeant-Major Flannery, seated at his ease beneath a shady elm in the garden of Healthward Ho, looked up from the novelette over which he had been relaxing his conscientious mind and became aware that he was in the presence of Youth and Beauty. Towards him, across the lawn, was walking a girl who, his experienced eye assured him at a single glance, fell into that limited division of the Sex which is embraced by the word Pippin. Her willowy figure was clothed in some clinging material of a beige colour, and her bright hazel eyes, when she came close enough for them to be seen, touched in the Sergeant-Major's susceptible bosom a ready chord. He rose from his seat with easy grace, and his hand, falling from the salute, came to rest on the western section of his waxed moustache.
'Nice morning, Miss,' he bellowed.
It seemed to Sergeant-Major Flannery that this girl was gazing upon him as on some wonderful dream of hers that had unexpectedly come true, and he was thrilled. It was unlikely, he felt, that she was about to ask him to perform some great knightly service for her, but if she did he would spring smartly to attention and do it in a soldierly manner while she waited. Sergeant-Major Flannery was pro-Dolly from the first moment of their meeting.
'Are you one of Doctor Twist's assistants?' asked Dolly.
'I am his only assistant, Miss. Sergeant-Major Flannery is the name.'
'Oh? Then you look after the patients here?'
'That's right, Miss.'
'Then it is you who will be in charge of my poor brother?'
She uttered a little sigh, and there came into her hazel eyes a look of pain.
'Your brother, Miss? Are you the lady . . .'
'Did Doctor Twist tell you about my brother?'
'Yes, Miss. The fellow who's been . . .'
He paused, appalled. Only by a hair's-breadth had he stopped himself from using in the presence of this divine creature the hideous expression 'mopping it up a bit'.
'Yes,' said Dolly. 'I see you know about it.'
'All I know about it, Miss,' said Sergeant-Major Flannery, 'is that the doctor had me into the orderly-room just now and said he was expecting a young lady to arrive with her brother, who needed attention. He said I wasn't to be surprised if I found myself called for to lend a hand in a rough-house, because this bloke – because this patient was apt to get verlent.'
'My brother does get very violent,' sighed Dolly. 'I only hope he won't do you an injury.'
Sergeant-Major Flannery twitched his banana-like fingers and inflated his powerful chest. He smiled a complacent smile.
'He won't do me an injury, Miss. I've had experience with . . .' Again he stopped just in time, on the very verge of shocking his companion's ears with the ghastly noun 'souses' . . . 'with these sort of nervous cases,' he amended. 'Besides, the doctor says he's going to give the gentleman a little sleeping-draught, which'll keep him as you might say 'armless till he wakes up and finds himself under lock and key.'
'I see. Yes, that's a very good idea.'
'No sense in troubling trouble till trouble troubles you, as the saying is, Miss,' agreed the Sergeant-Major. 'If you can do a thing in a nice, easy, tactful manner without verlence, then why use verlence? Has the gentleman been this way long, Miss?'
'For years.'
'You ought to have had him in a home sooner.'
'I have put him into dozens of homes. But he always gets out. That's why I'm so worried.'
'He won't get out of Healthward Ho, Miss.'
'He's very clever.'
It was on the tip of Sergeant-Major Flannery's tongue to point out that other people were clever, too, but he refrained, not so much from modesty as because at this moment he swallowed some sort of insect. When he had finished coughing he found that his companion had passed on to another aspect of the matter.
'I left him alone with Doctor Twist. I wonder if that was safe.'
'Quite safe, Miss,' the Sergeant-Major assured her. 'You can see the window's open and the room's on the ground floor. If there's trouble and the gentleman starts any verlence, all the doctor's got to do is to shout for 'elp and I'll get to the spot at the double and climb in and lend a hand.'
His visitor regarded him with a shy admiration.
'It's such a relief to feel that there's someone like you here, Mr Flannery. I'm sure you are wonderful in any kind of an emergency.'
'People have said so, Miss,' replied the Sergeant-Major, stroking his moustache and smiling another quiet smile.
'But what's worrying me is what's going to happen when my brother comes to after the sleeping-draught and finds that he is locked up. That's what I meant just now when I said he was so clever. The last place he was in they promised to see that he stayed there, but he talked them into letting him out. He said he belonged to some big family in the neighbourhood and had been shut up by mistake.'
'He won't get round me that way, Miss.'
'Are you sure?'
'Quite sure, Miss. If there's one thing you get used to in a place like this, it's artfulness. You wouldn't believe how artful some of these gentlemen can be. Only yesterday that Admiral Sir Rigby-Rudd toppled over in my presence after doing his bending and stretching exercises and said he felt faint and he was afraid it was his heart and would I go and get him a drop of brandy. Anything like the way he carried on when I just poured half a bucketful of cold water down his back instead, you never heard in your life. I'm on the watch all the time, I can tell you, Miss. I wouldn't trust my own mother if she was in here, taking
the cure. And it's no use arguing with them and pointing out to them that they came here voluntarily of their own free will, and are paying big money to be exercised and kept away from wines, spirits, and rich food. They just spend their whole time thinking up ways of being artful.'
'Do they ever try to bribe you?'
'No, Miss,' said Mr Flannery, a little wistfully. 'I suppose they take a look at me and think – and see that I'm not the sort of fellow that would take bribes.'
'My brother is sure to offer you money to let him go.'
'How much – how much good,' said Sergeant-Major Flannery carefully, 'does he think that's going to do him?'
'You wouldn't take it, would you?'
'Who, me, Miss? Take money to betray my trust, if you understand the expression?'
'Whatever he offers you, I will double. You see, it's so very important that he is kept here, where he will be safe from temptation. Mr Flannery,' said Dolly, timidly, 'I wish you would accept this.'
The Sergeant-Major felt a quickening of the spirit as he gazed upon the rustling piece of paper in her hand.
'No, no, Miss,' he said, taking it. 'It really isn't necessary.'
'I know. But I would rather you had it. You see, I'm afraid my brother may give you a lot of trouble.'
'Trouble's what I'm here for, Miss,' said Mr Flannery bravely. 'Trouble's what I draw my salary for. Besides, he can't give much trouble when he's under lock and key, as the saying is. Don't you worry, Miss. We're going to make this brother of yours a different man. We...'
'Oh!' cried Dolly.
A head and shoulders had shot suddenly out of the study window – the head and shoulders of Doctor Twist. The voice of Doctor Twist sounded sharply above the droning of bees and insects.
'Flannery!'
'On the spot, sir.'
'Come here, Flannery. I want you.'
'You stay here, Miss,' counselled Sergeant-Major Flannery paternally. 'There may be verlence.'