that he won’t lose by it if he happens to be genuine. What’s this thing
swerving—-Oh!”
There was a grinding noise and a bump. Another taxi had collided with
them.
In a flash Tuppence was out on the pavement. A policeman was approaching.
Before he arrived Tuppence had handed the driver five shillings, and she and
Jane had merged themselves in the crowd.
“It’s only a step or two now,” said Tuppence breathlessly. The accident had
taken place in Trafalgar Square.
“Do you think the collision was an accident, or done deliberately?”
“I don’t know. It might have been either.”
Hand-in-hand, the two girls hurried along.
“It may be my fancy,” said Tuppence suddenly, “but I feel as though there
was some one behind us.”
“Hurry!” murmured the other. “Oh, hurry!”
They were now at the corner of Carlton House Terrace, and their spirits
lightened. Suddenly a large and apparently intoxicated man barred their way.
“Good evening, ladies,” he hiccupped. “Whither away so fast?”
“Let us pass, please,” said Tuppence imperiously.
“Just a word with your pretty friend here.” He stretched out an unsteady
hand, and clutched Jane by the shoulder. Tuppence heard other footsteps behind.
She did not pause to ascertain whether they were friends or foes. Lowering her
head, she repeated a manoeuvre of childish days, and butted their aggressor full
in the capacious middle. The success of these unsportsmanlike tactics was
immediate. The man sat down abruptly on the pavement. Tuppence and Jane took to
their heels. The house they sought was some way down. Other footsteps echoed
behind them. Their breath was coming in choking gasps as they reached Sir
James’s door. Tuppence seized the bell and Jane the knocker.
The man who had stopped them reached the foot of the steps. For a moment he
hesitated, and as he did so the door opened. They fell into the hall together.
Sir James came forward from the library door.
“Hullo! What’s this?”
He stepped forward, and put his arm round Jane as she swayed uncertainly.
He half carried her into the library, and laid her on the leather couch. From a
tantalus on the table he poured out a few drops of brandy, and forced her to
drink them. With a sigh she sat up, her eyes still wild and frightened.
“It’s all right. Don’t be afraid, my child. You’re quite safe.”
Her breath came more normally, and the colour was returning to her cheeks.
Sir James looked at Tuppence quizzically.
“So you’re not dead, Miss Tuppence, any more than that Tommy boy of yours
was!”
“The Young Adventurers take a lot of killing,” boasted Tuppence.
“So it seems,” said Sir James dryly. “Am I right in thinking that the
joint venture has ended in success, and that this”–he turned to the girl on the
couch–“is Miss Jane Finn?”
Jane sat up.
“Yes,” she said quietly, “I am Jane Finn. I have a lot to tell you.”
“When you are stronger—-”
“No–now!” Her voice rose a little. “I shall feel safer when I have told
everything.”
“As you please,” said the lawyer.
He sat down in one of the big arm-chairs facing the couch. In a low voice
Jane began her story.
“I came over on the Lusitania to take up a post in Paris. I was fearfully
keen about the war, and just dying to help somehow or other. I had been studying
French, and my teacher said they were wanting help in a hospital in Paris, so I
wrote and offered my services, and they were accepted. I hadn’t got any folk of
my own, so it made it easy to arrange things.
“When the Lusitania was torpedoed, a man came up to me. I’d noticed him
more than once–and I’d figured it out in my own mind that he was afraid of
somebody or something. He asked me if I was a patriotic American, and told me
he was carrying papers which were just life or death to the Allies. He asked me
to take charge of them. I was to watch for an advertisement in the Times. If it
didn’t appear, I was to take them to the American Ambassador.
“Most of what followed seems like a nightmare still. I see it in my dreams