Part 21 (1/2)

”Take me to her! Take me to her at once, will you? She's not safe!”

said Rainer quickly.

”Not safe! Come along!” said Sir Tancred; and his languor fell from him like a mask, leaving him active and alert indeed.

”It's like this,” said Rainer as they hurried through the gardens. ”A week ago I got a cable from Paris saying that a kidnapping gang were after Dorothy. I'm a millionaire, and the sc.u.m are after ransom. I cabled to McNeill, my Paris agent, to come right here with half a dozen of the best detectives in France, scooped up Mr. Buist of the New York police,”--he nodded towards the short, clean-shaven, grimy man--”borrowed a yacht, and came along myself. Being in a hurry, we had trouble with the Atlantic of course; but I've done it seven hours quicker than steamer and train. Have McNeill and the detectives come?”

”No, they haven't,” said Tinker.

”Sure?” said Rainer.

”Quite,” said Tinker. ”I've seen no one watching over Dorothy; and she has gone about outside the town, in the woods, and down by the sea, just as usual. She knew of no danger, I'm sure.”

”Perhaps McNeill didn't want to frighten her, and just set his men to watch over her from a distance,” said Rainer.

”Perhaps McNeill is in it,” said Sir Tancred drily.

”I'm glad I came right here,” said Rainer.

They came out of the gardens, and as they pa.s.sed the Hotel des Princes, Tinker said, ”Go on down the Corniche! I'll catch you up!” and bolted into it.

He ran upstairs into his father's room, and took from a drawer the pocketbook which held their pa.s.sports; ran into his own room, and thrust into his hip-pocket the revolver he could use so well, into other pockets five hundred francs in notes and gold. Then, sure that he had provided against all possible emergencies, he ran smiling down the stairs.

As he came out of the front-door, his eyes fell on a lonely, deserted motor-car. In a breath he had pitied its loneliness, seen its use, and jumped into it. He set it going, and in three minutes caught up his father, Rainer, and the detective. Sir Tancred jumped into the seat beside him, Rainer and the detective into the back seat.

”Whose car is this? How did you get it?” said Sir Tancred.

”I commandeered it,” said Tinker firmly. ”And I was lucky too; it's a good car.”

”I suppose there'll be a row about it. But we've got to use it,” said Sir Tancred.

”Oh, no! there won't,” said Tinker cheerfully. ”When we come back, everyone but me can get out. I'll take it back, and explain things.”

For a mile Tinker sent the car along at full speed. Then he slowed down, and pulling up at every opening into the hills or down to the sh.o.r.e, sent a long coo-ee ringing down it. No answer came back. At the end of two miles his face was growing graver and graver, and its gravity was reflected in the faces of the three men. At the end of two miles and a half he stopped the car, and said, ”They can't have gone further than this.”

”Just too late,” muttered Septimus Rainer; and they looked at one another with questioning eyes.

”Well, there's no time to be lost,” said Sir Tancred. ”Mr. Buist had better hurry back to Monte Carlo, to the Hotel des Princes, in case we've missed them. We will go on hard, and he can wire to us, if they come back to the hotel, at Ventimiglia.”

”That's all very well,” said the detective with a sudden air of stubbornness. ”But I don't like the look of the business. It's a curious thing that Miss Rainer, the daughter of a millionaire, should be a governess in your family. I don't understand it. There is a chance, and I'm bound to consider it, of your being mixed up with this kidnapping gang. What's to prevent you kidnapping Mr. Rainer?”

Sir Tancred's eyes flashed, and he looked as though he could not believe his ears. Tinker laughed a gentle, joyful laugh.

”I mean no offence, sir,” said the detective with some haste, at the sight of Sir Tancred's face. ”But I'm bound to look at it all ways.”

”Just as you like,” said Sir Tancred quietly. ”Let Mr. Rainer go back, or both of you go back. Only be quick!”

The millionaire had watched the faces of father and son with very keen eyes while the detective had been speaking: ”Off you go, Buist!” he broke in. ”I know where I am! Go, man! Go!”

The detective jumped out of the car, and Sir Tancred said, ”Go to M.

Lautrec at the Police Bureau at Monte Carlo. He's the best man to set things moving. Tell him to wire as far as Genoa: there's nothing like being on the safe side.” And Tinker started the car.