Part 27 (1/2)

”I do,” he cried. ”Yourself!”

”Myself, Mr. Dale-Bulmer? In--handcuffs?”

And it was not her worst smile that was subdued in deference to the full glow of his shamefaced magnanimity.

”Don't talk nonsense!” said he gruffly. ”Your car is ready waiting for you at the door.”

”Not really?”

”Of course. I buried you alive, didn't I?” His eyes came from the wrecked window-seat. ”Won't that meet the immediate case for martyrdom?”

And he managed another twinkle after all.

It was a last amenity. He had been thanked, but without the smile which had been ready enough when it was out of place; now that she had cause to smile, the perversity of these women came out, as of course it would!

Not that this one took everything quite for granted; on the contrary, she caused an explosion by offering to pay for the damage to the window-seat. The militant party would have wished him to secure ample compensation from his insurance people, she a.s.serted, if the place _had_ been burned down. ”Then I might have built the kind of house I really want, instead of trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear!” he had retorted in his better manner, as though he had been a fool to interfere.

But it was not his best manner; it was almost as unrepresentative as the calm self-centered way in which the released prisoner spent the last minutes looking for her gloves, and, when she failed to find them, held out her bare hand with a brazen air of innocence, and no more thanks than would have become a parting guest.

Even John Dollar felt a new pang of disappointment as the two-seater shrank panting out of sight and ear-shot, beneath the bronzed timber of the disappearing drive, and Dale-Bulmer turned on his heel under the arch.

”Doesn't that take the cake?” he cried, when he had swallowed his pique with a chastened chuckle. ”A real well-bred 'un--if ever there was one--playing the very devil, and carrying it off like a little angel of light! That's what did me--the way she carried it off! I wanted to give her a fatherly word, to tell her not to go on making such a wicked little fool of herself. But she simply wouldn't look the part, would she? I hadn't even the cheek to ask her name--had you?”

”No. I don't know why you let her off,” said Dollar, irritably; but at the moment he hated Dale-Bulmer for extorting his common grat.i.tude at the expense of his sacred flame.

”Why?” cried that cavalier. ”Didn't you guess how I found out about her car?”

”How?”

”Reported to me by the police!”

”The police? Were there any about?”

Dollar felt as cold down the back as though his sacred flame had never flickered behind iron bars.

”Two blighters,” said Dale-Bulmer. ”I caught sight of 'em just after I had left you to have it out with her. That's what they had to say for themselves when I went out to let off steam; swore they were from Scotland Yard, and trumped up the two-seater when I pretended not to believe them. Nor did I till I'd run them down to the lodge and seen it for myself.”

”And then?”

”I swore it belonged to a friend, of course, and sent them both to the devil.”

”And--and you were man enough not to say a word about it to--to her?” It was as much as Dollar could do to keep his enthusiastic respect within bounds of discretion.

”Man enough? I wasn't going to have that sort of carrion coming in and spoiling _your_ job!”

Then he perceived how he had spoilt it himself; hung his great head like an elderly elephantine schoolboy; turned his broad back with an inimitable shrug, and stood shaken to the pit with sobs of mirth. Dollar joined him with a shout that relieved them both. And they roared together until a gaunt caretaker appeared on the scene, with a face expressive of such cra.s.s bewilderment that their poor clay quaked with a second shock.

”He lives in the bowels of the house,” moaned Dale-Bulmer. ”He doesn't know a thing that's happened. If he did I might have to double his screw. And--and I'd much rather treble your fee!”

He was solemn once more in his remorse, but not so solemn as the doctor had become within a minute.

”I would _pay_ a fee to take his place till to-morrow morning! I mean it, my dear sir. If you think you owe me any little amends, let me do this, for my own satisfaction!”