Mrs. Lenoir gave a cry. ‘What do you mean? How can he have gone? Marybelle, what do you mean?’
‘Marybelle, I think I had better take charge of the telling,’ said Julian, who was not going to let the little girl give away all the things they knew. After all, Mr. Lenoir was probably at the bottom of everything, and it would be foolish to tell him what they suspected about him.
‘Julian – tell me what has happened. Quickly!’ begged Mrs. Lenoir, looking really upset.
‘Uncle Quentin disappeared from his bed last night, and Sooty has vanished too,’ said Julian, shortly. ‘They may turn up, of course.’
‘Julian! You are keeping back something,’ said Mr. Lenoir, suddenly, watching the boy sharply. ‘You will tell us everything, please. How dare you keep anything back at a moment like this?’
‘Tell him Julian, tell him,’ wailed Marybelle, Julian looked obstinate, and glared at Marybelle.
The tip of Mr. Lenoir’s nose went white. ‘I am going to the police,’ he said. ‘Perhaps you will talk to them, my boy. They will knock some sense into you!’
Julian was surprised. ‘Why – I shouldn’t have thought you would want to go to the police!’ he blurted out. ‘You’ve got too many secrets to hide!’
Chapter Seventeen
MORE AND MORE PUZZLING
MR. LENOIR stared in the utmost amazement at Julian. There was a dead silence after this remark. Julian could have kicked himself for making it, but he couldn’t unsay it now.
Mr. Lenoir opened his mouth to say something at last, when footsteps came to the door. It was Block.
‘Come in, Block!’ said Mr. Lenoir. ‘There seem to have been queer happenings here.’
Block did not appear to hear, and remained outside the door. Mr. Lenoir beckoned him in impatiently.
‘No,’ said Julian, firmly. ‘What we have to say is not to be said in front of Block, Mr. Lenoir. We don’t like him and we don’t trust him.’
‘What do you mean?’ cried Mr. Lenoir, angrily. ‘What do you know about my servants? I’ve known Block for years before he came into my service, and he’s a most trustworthy fellow. He can’t help being deaf, and that makes him irritable at times.’
Julian remained obstinate. He caught an angry gleam in Block’s cold eyes, and glared back.
‘Well, this is incredible!’ said Mr. Lenoir, trying not to lose his temper. ‘I can’t think what’s come over everybody – disappearing like this – and now you children talking to me as if I wasn’t master in my own house. I insist that you tell me all you know.’
‘I’d rather tell it to the police,’ said Julian, his eye on Block. But Block showed no trace of expression on his face.
‘Go away, Block,’ said Mr. Lenoir at last, seeing that there was no hope of getting anything out of Julian while the servant was there. ‘You’d better all come down to my study. This is getting more and more mysterious. If the police have got to know, you may as well tell me first. I don’t want to look a complete idiot in my own house in front of them.’
Julian couldn’t help feeling a bit puzzled. Mr. Lenoir was not behaving as he had thought he might behave. He seemed sincerely puzzled and upset, and he was evidently planning to get the police in himself. Surely he wouldn’t do that if he had had a hand in the disappearances? Julian was lost in bewilderment again.
Mrs. Lenoir was now crying quietly, with Marybelle sobbing beside her. Mr. Lenoir put an arm round his wife and kissed Marybelle, suddenly appearing very much nicer than he had ever seemed before. ‘Don’t worry,’ he said, in a gentle voice. ‘We’ll soon get to the bottom of this, if I have to get the whole of the police force in. I think I know who’s at the bottom of it all!’
That surprised Julian even more. He and the others followed Mr. Lenoir down to his study. It was still locked. Mr. Lenoir opened it and pushed aside a great pile of papers that were on his desk.
‘Now – what do you know?’ he said to Julian quietly. The children noticed that the top of his nose was no longer white. Evidently he had got over his burst of temper.
‘Well, sir – I think this is a queer house, with a lot of queer things happening in it,’ said Julian, not quite knowing how to begin. ‘I’m afraid, sir, you won’t like me telling the police all I know.’
‘Julian, don’t speak in riddles!’ said Mr. Lenoir, impatiently. ‘You act as if I were a criminal, in fear of the police. I’m not. What goes on in this house?’
‘Well – the signalling from the tower, for instance,’ said Julian, watching Mr. Lenoir’s face.
Mr. Lenoir gaped. It was clear that he was immensely astonished. He stared at Julian, and Mrs. Lenoir cried out suddenly:
‘Signalling! What signalling?’
Julian explained. He told how Sooty had discovered the light-flashing first, and then how he and Dick had gone with him to the tower when they had seen the flashing again. He described the line of tiny, pricking lights across the marsh from the seaward side.
Mr. Lenoir listened intently. He asked questions about dates and times. He heard how the boys had followed the signaller to Block’s room, where he had disappeared.
‘Got out of the window, I suppose,’ said Mr. Lenoir.
‘Block’s got nothing to do with this, you can rest assured of that. He is most faithful and loyal, and has been a great help to me while he has been here. I have an idea that Mr. Barling is at the bottom of all this. He can’t signal from his house to the sea because it’s not quite high enough up the hill, and is in the wrong position. He must have been using my tower to signal from – coming himself to do it too! He knows all the secret ways of this house, better than I do! It would be easy for him to come here whenever he wanted to.’
The children thought at once that probably Mr. Barling had been the signaller! They stared at Mr. Lenoir. They were all beginning to think that he really and truly had nothing to do with the queer goings-on after all.
‘I don’t see why Block shouldn’t know all this,’ said Mr. Lenoir, getting up. ‘It’s plain to me that Barling could explain a lot of the queer things that have been happening. I’ll see if Block has ever suspected anything.’
Julian pursed his lips together. If Mr. Lenoir was going
to tell everything to Block, who certainly must be in the plot somehow, he wasn’t going to tell him anything more!
I’ll see what Block thinks about everything, and then if we can’t solve this mystery ourselves, we’ll get in the police,’ said Mr. Lenoir, going out of the room.
Julian did not want to say anything much in front of Mrs. Lenoir. So he changed the subject completely.
‘What about breakfast?’ he said. Tm feeling hungry!’
So they all went to have breakfast, though Mar/belle could eat nothing at all, because she kept thinking of poor Sooty.
‘I think,’ said Julian, when they were alone at the table, ‘I rather think we’ll do a little mystery-solving ourselves. I’d like a jolly good look round that room of your father’s, George, to begin with. There must be some other way of getting out of there, besides the secret passage we know.’
‘What do you think happened there last night?’ said Dick.
‘Well, I imagine that Sooty went there and hid, to wait until it was safe to try and get into the secret passage as soon as Uncle Quentin was asleep,’ said Julian, thoughtfully. ‘And while he was hiding, someone came into that room from somewhere, to kidnap Uncle Quentin. Why, I don’t know, but that’s what I think. Then Sooty yelled out in surprise, and got knocked on the head or something. Then he and Uncle Quentin were kidnapped together, and taken off through some secret way we don’t know.’
‘Yes,’ said George. ‘And it was Mr. Barling who kidnapped them! I distinctly heard Sooty yell out “Mr. Barling”. He must have switched on his torch and seen him.’
‘They are quite probably hidden somewhere in Mr. Barling’s house, ‘said Anne, suddenly.
‘Yes!’ said Julian. ‘Why didn’t I think of that? Why, that’s just where they would be, of course. I’ve a jolly good mind to go down and have a look!’
‘Oh, let me come too,’ begged George.
‘No,’ said Julian. ‘Certainly not. This is rather a dangerous adventure, and Mr. Barling is a bad and dangerous man. You and Marybelle are certainly not to come. I’ll take Dick.’
‘You are absolutely meanl’ began George, her eyes flashing. ‘Aren’t I as good as a boy? I’m going to come.’