As they ceased their pulling he shouted: 'The police are here! Quick! Open that door, Rudd. I've got to get Sabine away. We'll use Lord Gavin's plane while they're fighting it out together.'
Rudd wrenched back the bolts. Milly unlocked the door and tugged it" open. All four of them ran out into the half-light which came from the flares.
The bells were still clanging faintly behind them, but now they could hear the sound of shots as the waves of police, descending from fresh cars and lorries which were arriving by both drives every moment, dashed into the fray a hundred yards away. Lord Gavin had disappeared. The backs of his men were now towards the tower.
As Gregory and the rest burst out of its entrance there was a crashing in the undergrowth behind them. A body of police who had been sent to take the conspirators in the rear were just emerging from the coppice.
Someone called upon Gregory's party to halt, but he took no notice, urging Sabine on beside him. They raced across the open lawn towards the hangar, but, as they reached it, another phalanx of police emerged from the opposite coppice and Marrowfat's voice boomed out into the semidarkness. 'Halt there you, or I fire.'
They were caught between two forces; as the" police who had emerged from the Bell tower coppice were hurrying up in their rear. Another moment and they were surrounded.
With a sinking heart Gregory realised that the game was up.
Beside Marrowfat loomed the tall figure of Sir Pellinore, the bulky form of the Chief Constable, and the tall but slighter Gerry Wells.
As Gregory halted he gulped in a quick breath, and then stared at the Inspector. 'How did you manage to turn up here so quickly?'
Gerry Wells grinned. 'When you tipped me off about Bell being the word instead of Mermaid I tumbled to it at once that meant the Bell tower at Quex Park. It took me five minutes to phone Canterbury, so the Superintendent could concentrate the others when he go there, and you'd obviously sneaked your car round near Hook Quay. You had the heels of me but I didn't lose much time, once I got started, and the others seemed to have arrived here altogether.'
Milly stepped forward and touched his arm. 'It's been terrible,' she murmured. 'But I feel safe, now at last because you're here.'
Most unprofessionally he put his arm round her slim waist. Marrowfat stepped quickly up to Sabine.
'Mademoiselle Szenty,' he said gruffly, 'this is an unpleasant duty but I have no option. I arrest you as a confederate of Lord Gavin Fortescue upon the charge of having been an accessory to an attempted murder.'
'But you can't,' cried Gregory. 'It was she who saved our lives by warning Sir Pellinore that our murder was to be attempted.'
'I'm sorry,' Marrowfat shrugged his vast shoulders. 'Of that charge, of course, the lady will doubtless be able to clear herself; but there are others. Three of our men were done to death here in the Park tonight. Whether she had any hand in that I don't know but, in any case, she is heavily implicated in the importation of contraband. Suitable charges will be presented in due course. I proposed to hold her on this one for the moment.'
The scene was quieter now. Three hundred police had rounded up Lord Gavin's agitators and saboteurs. Not a single plane had got away. The wounded were being carried to ambulances that had arrived on the heels of the police from Birchington, Westgate, Margate and Herne Bay. A score of Inspectors were questioning the captives and taking down material for charges in their notebooks. Sir Pellinore, the Superintendent, Wells, the Chief Constable, Gregory, Rudd and the two girls stood apart, a hundred yards from the shifting crowd on the far side of Lord Gavin's plane.
Suddenly there was a movement in the undergrowth near by. A flash of light streaked past Rudd's face. Milly screamed as a knife caught her in the shoulder.
Gregory guessed the thrower instantly. It was Corot, whose fanatical blood lust had tempted him into this last bid for vengeance; the knife had probably been intended for Wells. Milly collapsed against the Inspector, sobbing, as he swiftly drew out the knife and dabbed at the wound. His eyes blazed with a murderous desire to get to grips with the apache but, supporting Milly as he was, he could do nothing.
It was the Chief Constable who, nearer to the coppice than any of the others, dashed into the undergrowth swinging his heavy stick high above his head. He had caught sight of Corot's white face, gleaming there, within a second of the knife being thrown. His stick descended; catching the murderous Frenchman a terrible blow right across the eyes. Corot went down moaning among the bushes. Sir Pellinore and Marrowfat had already started forward to the Chief Constable's assistance.
Gregory's distress that poor little Milly should have been wounded was almost instantly displaced by the wild thought that the ensuing commotion had given him one more chance.
Sabine was standing close beside him. 'Get into the plane,' he muttered swiftly.
Without a second's hesitation she turned, tore "over to it, and threw herself in. Hard on her heels he scrambled up beside her. Rudd sprang to the door of the cabin and slammed it after them as Gregory pressed the self-starter.
Wells was facing in their direction but he was supporting Milly. He was quick enough to see that he had the one perfect excuse for not attempting to interfere.
The Superintendent realised what had happened only a moment later and swerved out of his heavy trot, towards the bushes, in the direction of the plane; but Sir Pellinore grasped the situation at the same instant.
He seized the Superintendent by the lapel of his coat. 'A great day sir,' he said swiftly. 'I must congratulate you.'
'Dammit, let me go,' boomed Marrowfat, but his voice was drowned in the roar of the aeroplane engine.
'You must lunch with me,' shouted Sir Pellinore above the din. 'I'll have the Home Secretary to meet you.'
Marrowfat thrust his great hands forward and tried to push Sir Pellinore off, but the older man showed unexpected toughness.
'Must tell the Monarch,' he bawled, his mouth glued almost to the Superintendent's ear, 'His Majesty will probably honour you with some decoration.'
'Let me go, sir,' burst out Marrowfat his face gone purple. 'Let me go or I'll arrest you for interfering with the police in the execution of their duties.'
'What's that! I didn't hear,' Sir Pellinore yelled back. The plane ran forward; a hundred faces turned towards it but no one was foolhardy enough to try and stop its progress. It turned into the wind, rose, bounced once, then sailed close over the heads of the police and their prisoners.
'Next week,' Sir Pellinore shouted a little less loudly; as he clung still to the frantic Superintendent. 'I'll let you know what day the Home Secretary can lunch with us. You must bring Wells; splendid feller, Wells. Sallust shall join us too if he's in England.'
Rudd was grinning from ear to ear as he waved after the departing plane. It lifted above the housetop missing its chimneys by no more than a dozen feet. A mile of land spread below it and then the sea. Gregory placed his hand on Sabine's.
'Where do we go from here?' he asked. 'You can bet the plane's fuelled to capacity.'
'I don't mind,' she whispered, letting her head fall on his shoulder. 'This last week we've been drawn into a strange and terrible adventure, but now, thank God, it's over.'
'That's where you're wrong,' he laughed, as the plane zoomed away over the water. 'Our real adventure has only just begun.'