The Profiteers Part 33

"Warning, indeed!" Dredlinton muttered. "I won't move out of the house without a bodyguard. If any one dares to interfere with me, I'll--I'll shoot them! What happens to a man, Inspector, if he shoots another in self-defence, eh?"

"It depends upon the circ.u.mstances, my lord," was the cautious reply.

"The law in England requires self-defence to be very clearly established."

Dredlinton moved to the sideboard, poured himself out a liqueur and drank it off.

"Will you take something. Inspector?" he asked, turning around.

"I thank your lordship, no!"

Dredlinton thrust his hands into his pockets and returned to his seat.

"I don't want to lose my temper," he said,--"I am perfectly cool, as you see, Inspector---but put yourself in my position now. Don't you think it's enough to make a man furious to have an official from Scotland Yard come into his house here in the heart of London and warn him that he is in danger of being kidnapped?"

"I don't think that I went quite so far as that," the inspector objected, "nor do I in any way suggest that, sooner or later, the people who are responsible for Mr. Rees' disappearance will not be brought to justice.

But I considered it my duty to point out to you that the directors of your company appear to have excited a feeling throughout the whole of England, which might well bring you enemies wholly unconnected with the ordinary criminal cla.s.ses. That is where our difficulty lies."

Lord Dredlinton had the air of a man argued into reasonableness.

"I see, Inspector. I quite understand," he declared. "But listen to me. I shall throw myself upon your protection. In Mr. Rees' absence, it is of vital importance, during the next few days, that nothing should happen to Mr. Phipps, Mr. Martin or myself. You must have us all shadowed. You must see that I am not lost sight of for a moment. Here is a little earnest of what is to come," he went on, drawing out his pocketbook and pa.s.sing a folded note over towards his visitor, "and remember, Mr. Phipps has offered five hundred pounds for the discovery of the person who is responsible for his nephew's disappearance."

Shields made no movement towards the money. He shook his head gently.

"I shall be glad to take the reward, my lord, if I am fortunate enough to earn it," he said, rising to his feet. "Until then I do not require payment for my services."

Dredlinton replaced the note in his pocket.

"Just as you like, of course, Inspector. I only meant it as a little incentive. And I want you to remember this--do rub it into your Chief--I have already called to see him twice, and it doesn't seem to me that the authorities are looking upon our position seriously enough. We have a right to the utmost protection the law can give us, and further, I must insist upon it that every effort is made to discover Mr. Rees before it is too late."

The butler stood on the threshold. He had entered in response to Lord Dredlinton's ring, with the perfect silence and prompt.i.tude of the best of his cla.s.s. His master stared at him for a moment uneasily. The man's appearance, grave and respectable though he was, seemed to have startled him.

"Show the inspector out," he directed. "Good night, Mr. Shields."

The man bowed to Josephine.

"Good night, my lord!"

Dredlinton stared at the closed door. Then he turned around with a little gesture of anger.

"Every d.a.m.ned thing that happens, nowadays, seems designed to irritate me!" he exclaimed. "That man Shields is nothing but a p.o.o.pstick!"

"I differ from you entirely," Josephine declared. "I thought that he seemed a very intelligent person, with unusual powers of self-restraint."

"Shows what your judgment is worth! I can't think what Scotland Yard are about, to put the greatest lout they have in the service on to an important business like this. And what the mischief are we always changing servants for? There were two new men at dinner, and that butler of yours gives me the creeps. What on earth has become of Jacob?"

"You told Jacob yourself to go to h.e.l.l, a few days ago," Josephine reminded him. "You can scarcely expect any self-respecting butler to stand your continual abuse."

"Or a self-respecting wife, eh?" he sneered.

Josephine regarded him coldly.

"One's servants," she remarked, "have an advantage. Jacob has found a better place."

"Precisely what you'd like to do yourself, eh?"

"Precisely what I intend to do before long."

"Well, then, why don't you do it?" he demanded brutally. "You think that everything I said the other day was bluff, eh, and that Stanley Rees'

disappearance has driven everything else out of my head? Well, you're wrong, madam. As soon as this infernal business is done with, I am going to pay a visit to my lawyers."

"For once," she said, with a faint smile, "you will take my good wishes with you."

"You mean," he exclaimed, moving from his place and standing before her with his hands in his pockets, "that you want to get rid of me, eh?"

She met his scowling gaze fearlessly.

"Of course I do. I don't think that any woman could have lived with you as long as I have and not want to get rid of you. On the other hand, as you know--as in your heart you know perfectly well," she went on, "I have remained a faithful wife to you, and it is not my intention to have you take advantage of a situation for which you were entirely responsible.

You will have to remember, Henry, that the reason for my leaving your house in the middle of the night will scarcely help your case."

Dredlinton stood and glared at his wife, his eyes narrowing, his mean little mouth curled.

"Josephine," he cried, "I don't care a d.a.m.n about your leaving my house, then or at any time, but the more I think of it, the stranger it seems to me that this friend of yours, Wingate, should come to the office and threaten me for my connection with the B. & I., and at the moment of leaving offer to sell wheat. I am getting a little suspicious about your friend, my lady. I have given them the tip at Scotland Yard and I only hope they take advantage of it."

"Why single out Mr. Wingate?" she asked, "He certainly is not alone in his antipathy to your company."

"Don't I know that?" Dredlinton exclaimed angrily. "Don't I get a dozen threatening letters a day? Men take me on one side and reason with me in the club. I had a Cabinet Minister at the office this afternoon. I begin to get the cold shoulder wherever I turn, but, d.a.m.n it all, don't you understand that we must have money?"

Josephine regarded him with a cold lack of sympathy in her face.

"I understand that you have had about a hundred thousand pounds of mine,"

she remarked.

"Like your generosity, my dear, to remind me of it," he sneered. "To you it seems, I suppose, a great deal of money. To me--well, I am not sure that it was fair compensation for what I have never had."

"What you have never had, you never deserved, Henry."

He flung himself towards the door.

"Josephine," he said, looking back, "do you know you are one of the few women in the world I can't even talk to? You freeze me up every time I try. I wonder whether the man who is so anxious to stand in my shoes--"

She was suddenly erect, her eyes flaming. He shuffled out and slammed the door after him with a little nervous laugh.

CHAPTER XX