They had hardly reached their new post when two men came along the little used footway leading to the group of shacks. From the lower ground Gregory could see them in the faint dusky light sufficiently to recognise the taller of the two, who dragged his leg a little, as the Limper.
A new sound came from down the creek, the rapid throb of other, more powerful, motor boat engines. The Limper caught it at the same second as Gregory, and paused, silhouetted for a moment in the lighted doorway of the cottage, listening intently.
Suddenly the shrill blast of a whistle pierced the muted roar of the engines. Marrowfat, lying in wait behind the shacks, had heard the approaching police boats, as well, and sent his men into action.
22
Desperate Methods at Windmill Creek
The Limper dived into the cottage. The Superintendent's piping blast was still shrilling through the night when Wells's whistle took up the note, and springing to his feet, he leapt up the bank.
Instantly a dozen forms, hidden before, came into view; racing across the coarse grass and broken rubble towards the cottage. The Inspector reached the door first; his men were close behind him. Gregory had charged in at a different angle, making for one of the downstairs windows. The glass shattered and fell as he bashed at it with the butt end of his borrowed police pistol.
The door was bolted; the police were throwing their shoulders against it to break it down. Gregory and Rudd had stripped the lower window frame of its jagged glass, parted the curtain, and were peering into the room.
The Limper, two other men, and a thin pinch faced grey-haired woman, were inside. The Limper was bawling down the telephone.
'Drop that!' yelled Gregory, pushing his head and shoulders through the shattered window. 'Drop that or I'll drop you!' He thrust his pistol forward aiming for the Limper's body.
The crook spun round, still clutching the instrument, and stared at Gregory; but the police had broken in the door and were crashing into the room.
The scuffle was short. By the time Gregory had left the window and walked in through the door the Limper and his companions had been overpowered.
When a brief silence fell again they could hear shots and shouting coming from the direction of Hook Quay Marrowfat and the rest were already on the barges. The police were there now in such overwhelming numbers that the smugglers had no possible chance of escape.
Immediately order was restored inside the cottage Wells said abruptly to his men: 'Take these other two and the woman into the next room.' Then he faced the Limper.
'Now then, we've got you. You'd best come clean. Where were you telephoning to just now?'
The Limper's sullen face displayed only anger and contempt.
'You go to hell,' he snarled. 'You've got me, and I know it, but you won't get the Chief.' He turned his sneering eyes on Gregory.
'As for you! you've asked for all that's coming to you. That is if you care about the girl. It's she who's double-crossed us: given away somehow the place where we meant to do this job tonight. But, blast your soul, I had time to phone;" so she'll be for the high jump. I'll go to prison but you can go and buy a wreath for her.'
Gregory's brown face had gone a shade paler. He did not reply. Instead, he snatched up the telephone and, a moment later, got the operator.
'This is police business,' he said, 'urgent! The last call that was made from here only a couple of minutes ago what was it?'
There was a short pause then he turned to Wells.
'Thank God! There's an intelligent man on the end of this line. This brute called the Quex Park number and said: "21. 35. 19". He repeated it twice before we got him.'
In a second Wells had out his notebook. '21, "Full fathoms five thy father lies” that’s here, 35, "Shake off slumber and beware"19, "The watchdogs bark: “two lines of warning; that's evidently their code signal for an extreme emergency.'
Gregory dug his nails into his palms. The warning had been given. Quex Park was over twenty miles away as the crow flies. If Gavin Fortescue believed, as the Limper obviously did, that Sabine had given the information about the night landing which had enabled the police to lay their trap her last hope of any clemency from him would be gone. ] might be giving orders now for her murder before he away safely to France.
Little beads of sweat stood out on Gregory's forehead as he realised what a colossal blunder he had made. He should have gone straight to the Park and chanced everything instead of coming here with the police in the hope of obtaining knowledge which would improve his situation later. By waiting for the police launches to come up Marrowfat had unwittingly bungled the affair, and allowed the Limper time to telephone, wrecking all Gregory's hopes of a successful raid on Quex Park.
While he stood there, sick with anger and apprehension, one of Wells's men had been running over the Limper and emptying the contents of his pockets on to a kitchen dresser. Among them was a buff form.
Wells snatched it up. It was a telegram, despatched from Birchington that afternoon to Creed, Poste Restante, Rochester. He read out the numbers on it: '44. 32. 27'.
The Inspector glanced swiftly down the lines in his notebook and said: '44, "On the bats wing I do fly"32, "Open-eyed conspiracy"27, "Seanymphs hourly ring his knell".'1
Gregory stepped forward. 'That means the fleet of planes are out again as well as the barges and "openeyed conspiracy "good God! Gavin guessed the game was up this afternoon so he's risking everything on a last throw to land his bunch of communist agitators tonight.'
'That's it,' exclaimed Wells, 'but where? "Seanymphs hourly ring his knell" gives the place all right but it's one we haven't had yet.'
A new light of hope lit Gregory's eyes. If the planes were coming in at that moment with the most important cargo of all it was almost certain that Gavin Fortescue would be there to meet them. He would have left Sabine at Quex Park, so although a warning had been sent there it could only be telephoned on to him, and he might be many miles away on some desolate stretch of coastline to the south or east. Perhaps, when the warning reached him, he would leave the country at once with the returning planes without risking a return to the Park to deal with Sabine. On the other hand he might have taken Sabine with him; in which case her situation would be every bit as desperate as it had been before. In a sudden spate of words he voiced his thoughts to Wells.
The Limper laughed. 'That's right. You're clever enough and a hell of a lot of good may it do you. The Chief'll get out all right while you're batting your head about seanymphs. And you bet he's got Sabine with him.'
Rudd, who was lurking now in a corner of the room, said quickly: 'Seanymphs. That sounds like mermaids ter me. I reckon the old man's at some bit of a pub called the Mermaid, or the Mermaid Tavern, or the Mermaid Arms. Must be a local of that name somewhere round abart this coast.'
'Good for you,' nodded Gerry Wells. 'Run along to the shacks will you. Tell the Superintendent we've got our man and ask him if he can come along with the local inspectors if he's mopped up the crowd on the barges.'
Rudd departed at the double.
The Superintendent had already dealt with the main body of the smugglers. Rudd met him with Sir Pellinore and the Chief Constable already on his way to the cottage; so that no more than three minutes elapsed before they all crowded into the little room.