The Devil's Paw Part 10

"You are very chivalrous, sir," she ventured, smiling.

"I happen to be only selfish," Julian replied. "I even despise myself for what I am doing. I am turning traitor myself, simply because I could not bear the thought of what might happen to you if you were discovered."

"You like me, then, a little, Mr. Orden?" she asked.

"Twenty-four hours ago," he sighed, "I had hoped to answer that question before it was asked."

"This is very tantalising," she murmured. "You are going to save my life, then, and afterwards treat me as though I were a leper?"

"I shall hope," he said, "that you may have explanations--that I may find--"

She held out her hand and stopped him. Once more, for a moment, her eyes were distended, her form was tense. She was listening intently.

"There is some one coming," she whispered--"two or three men, I think.

What fools we have been! We ought to have decided--about the car."

Her teeth came together for a moment. It was her supreme effort at self-control. Then she laughed almost naturally, lit a cigarette, and seated herself upon the arm of an easy-chair.

"You are interfering shockingly with my correspondence," she declared, "and I am sure that they want you for bridge. Here comes Lord Maltenby to tell you so," she added, glancing towards the door.

Lord Maltenby was very pompous, very stiff, and yet apologetic. He considered the whole affair in which he had become involved ridiculous.

"Miss Abbeway," he said, "I beg to present to you Colonel Henderson. An unfortunate occurrence took place here last night, which it has become the duty of--er--Colonel Henderson to clear up. He wishes to ask you a question concerning--er--a motor-car."

Colonel Henderson frowned. He stepped a little forward with the air of wishing to exclude the Earl from further speech.

"May I ask, Miss Abbeway," he began, "whether the small coupe car, standing about a hundred yards down the back avenue, is yours?"

"It is," she a.s.sented, with a little sigh. "It won't go."

"It won't go?" the Colonel repeated.

"I thought you might know something about cars," she explained. "They tell me that two of the sparking plugs are cracked. I am thinking of replacing them tomorrow morning, if I can get Mr. Orden to help me."

"How long has the car been there in its present condition, then?" the Colonel enquired.

"Since about five o'clock yesterday afternoon," she replied.

"You don't think it possible that it could have been out on the road anywhere last night, then?"

"Out on the road!" she laughed. "Why, I couldn't get it up to the garage! You go and look at it, Colonel, if you understand cars.

Fellowes, the chauffeur here, had a look at the plugs when I brought it in, and you'll find that they haven't been touched."

"I trust," the Earl intervened, "that my chauffeur offered to do what was necessary?"

"Certainly he did, Lord Maltenby," she a.s.sured him. "I am trying hard to be my own mechanic, though, and I have set my mind on changing those plugs myself to-morrow morning."

"You are your own chauffeur, then, Miss Abbeway?" her inquisitor asked.

"Absolutely."

"You can change a wheel, perhaps?"

"Theoretically I can, but as a matter of fact I have never had to do it.'"

"Your tyres," Colonel Henderson continued, "are of somewhat unusual pattern."

"They are Russian," she told him. "I bought them for that reason. As a matter of fact, they are very good tyres."

"Miss Abbeway," the Colonel said, "I don't know whether you are aware that my police are in search of a spy who is reported to have escaped from the marshes last night in a small motor-car which was left at a certain spot in the Salthouse road. I do not believe that there are two tyres such as yours in Norfolk. How do you account for their imprint being clearly visible along the road to a certain spot near Salthouse?

My police have taken tracings of them this morning."

Catherine remained perfectly speechless. A slow smile of triumph dawned upon her accuser's lips. Lord Maltenby's eyebrows were upraised as though in horror.

"Perhaps," Julian interposed, "I can explain the tyre marks upon the road. Miss Abbeway drove me down to Furley's cottage, where I spent the night, late in the afternoon. The marks were still there when I returned this morning, because I noticed them."

"The same marks?" the Colonel asked, frowning.

"Without a doubt the same marks," Julian replied. "In one place, where we skidded a little, I recognized them."

Colonel Henderson smiled a little more naturally.

"I begin to have hopes," he acknowledged frankly, "that I have been drawn into another mare's nest. Nevertheless, I am bound to ask you this question, Miss Abbeway. Did you leave your room at all during last night?"

"Not unless I walked in my sleep," she answered, "but you had better make enquiries of my aunt, and Parkins, our maid. They sleep one on either side of me."

"You would not object," the Colonel continued, more cheerfully still, "if my people thought well to have your things searched?"

"Not in the least," Catherine replied coolly, "only if you unpack my trunks, I beg that you will allow my maid to fold and unfold my clothes."

"I do not think," Colonel Henderson said to Lord Maltenby, "that I have any more questions to ask Miss Abbeway at present."

"In which case we will return to the drawing-room," the Earl suggested a little stiffly. "Miss Abbeway, you will, I trust, accept my apologies for our intrusion upon you. I regret that any guest of mine should have been subjected to a suspicion so outrageous."

Catherine laughed softly.

"Not outrageous really, dear Lord Maltenby," she said. "I do not quite know of what I have been suspected, but I am sure Colonel Henderson would not have asked me these questions if it had not been his duty."

"If you had not been a guest in this house, Miss Abbeway," the Colonel a.s.sured her, with some dignity, "I should have had you arrested first and questioned afterwards."

"You come of a race of men, Colonel Henderson, who win wars," she declared graciously. "You know your own mind."

"You will be joining us presently, I hope?" Lord Maltenby enquired from the door.

"In a very few minutes," she promised.

The door closed behind them. Catherine waited for a moment, then she sank a little hysterically into a chair.