"I will just telephone my standby, Pons," I said, but he had already disappeared. The dog Toto got up with a snuffling noise, evidently glad to be moving again. I helped Colonel d'Arcy on with his coat and then made my call and packed my own bag. Within ten minutes we were en route for Essex.
4
Our client had his own car waiting at the small country station. It was a bitterly cold night with the fog swirling heavily, though a light wind which was moving across the surrounding marshes made it gust and eddy.
"My fiancée is staying at The Briars with her mother at the moment," Colonel d'Arcy explained as he drove carefully along the flat road, the wall of fog swirling uneasily in the yellow light of the headlamps. "She insisted on coming today straightaway."
"An admirable lady," said Pons, sitting back in his corner of the car, his features in heavy shadow. "Though whether it is wise to be with you is another matter."
"You do not think she is in any danger?" said the colonel in an alarmed tone.
"We cannot rule out the possibility. Anyone dose to you may be. We must just keep a close watch on the young lady. Obviously, your preparations for marriage have precipitated matters."
"I do not see, Mr. Pons…" began our client, when a farm cart loomed suddenly out of the fog and we were lurching over the rough shoulder with a screeching of brakes. Our client swore and was visibly shaken. He carefully reversed back onto the road and we got out The big wooden farm cart, the horse standing patiently in the shafts, was three-quarters across the narrow lane.
"We might all have been killed," said Colonel d'Arcy violently. "I will report this to the police by telephone as soon as we arrive home."
"Indeed," said Pons casually, looking carefully along the roadside. "You are not the only person who almost came to grief, I see."
He pointed to where zigzag tire marks wandered across the frosty grass. He was immediately down on his knees with a pocket flashlight, examining them while Colonel d'Arcy looked somewhat puzzledly on.
"The driver of this vehicle obviously veered around and stopped."
"Did he not," said Pons.
He had already taken the horse's reins and urged it and the heavy cart up onto the shoulder, where he tied the animal to some stout iron railings. He looked underneath the vehicle with his flashlight and came back dusting his hands. "No doubt the driver has gone for help. I see that the back axle is cracked."
"Even so," exploded Colonel d'Arcy, "he should have been more careful and have seen that the animal was tied up securely."
We got back in the car and drove on toward The Briars in somber silence, the fog waving and eddying in thick, oily swathes. Toto, who had remained crouched at the colonel's feet, quite phlegmatic even during the near-accident, had not descended to the ground when we examined the wagon but now that we were approaching the colonel's home, began to exhibit some excitement, whining and growling and wagging his massive tail
"Before we join your fiancée and her family," said Pons, "I must ask what arrangements you have made regarding your property."
Our client looked surprised.
"Why, Mr. Pons, I have not made a will if that is what you mean. But when I do so, my estate would naturally pass to my wife, the present Miss Mortimer, in due course."
"You have no other surviving relatives?"
Colonel d'Arcy shook his head.
"No close ones that I know of. And certainly no one who would stand to benefit by my estate. You surely cannot mean…"
"There is no other plausible motive," Pons went on imperturbably. "On the basis of what you have told me, money would appear to be the cause of these dark events which have surrounded your family. Your uncle might have been supposed to the naturally at some future time, due to his heart complaint There was no urgency about that, though an attempt was made to frighten him with the idol. His son, a young man and his sole heir, died soon afterward under frightful circumstances. The new heir is first threatened and then his life attempted. No, Colonel, there is no coincidence here. A malign, evil brain is working inexorably toward securing your estate. We must be on constant guard."
"Good heavens, Pons," I said, conscious of a faint shudder in my spinal region "You will be frightening me next"
"I fancy I shall frighten you, Parker, more easily than Colonel d'Arcy," said Pons with a thin smile. "I want him to be on his guard. We are up against a devilish and cunning adversary."
"In that ease I wish I had brought my revolver," I said somewhat tardy.
"Ah, Parker," said Solar Pons in that maddeningly omniscient manner of his, "I took the liberty of packing it for you. I have brought a derringer myself and I fancy that will be adequate armament, both for tarantulas or human adversaries."
And he passed the weapon to me.
"I confess I am confused and bewildered by the whole thing, gentlemen," said Colonel d'Arcy, hunched over the wheel and straining his eyes through the fog. "There are no possible heirs, so how could my estate be the motive?"
"Ah, that is something yet to be discovered," said Solar Pons mysteriously, and he said nothing more until the colonel's car had crawled through the last few hundred yards of fog and deposited us at our destination.
The Briars proved to be a long, low, stone-built house with wings thrown out at either side, approached through iron entrance gates, the estate road running through a considerable area of woodland and grass before the house itself was reached. The colonel parked the car on a broad gravel concourse.
Pons and I got out as a welcoming shaft of light came from a door which was flung open at the head of the steps. There were several cars parked in front of the lawn which fronted the mansion, and Pons passed a few moments examining them while the colonel reversed the car. The fog was lifting a little now and as we went up the steps, I could see that the house was handsome, with carved statues set in niches and well-kept stonework.
The door had been opened by a tall, dark-visaged man in a green baize apron, wearing a batwing collar which stood out in sharp contrast to his somber clothing. He gave Colonel d'Arcy a stiff bow and was already bending forward to pick up our bags.
"This is Vickers, who was my batman in West Africa," said the colonel "These are my guests, Mr. Solar Pons and Dr. Lyndon Parker."
The dark-faced man gave us a bow which seemed like an extension of the first.
"Good evening, gentlemen. Your rooms are ready."
He closed the door behind us and turned to our client.
"Mr. Bradshaw has arrived, sir."
"Good. He is my solicitor, Mr. Pons. Would you like to meet him?"
Solar Pons nodded.
"If it is no trouble. We can go to our rooms afterward, Parker."
We followed the colonel across a gloomy hall with oak paneling, lined with shields and spears of African origin.
"It seems rather late for a call," said Pons.
"Bradshaw probably dined with my fiancée and her mother," the colonel explained. "They knew I would be back tonight."
As he spoke there was a murmur of voices, and d'Arcy threw back the oak-paneled double doors and ushered us into another large paneled room lit by candles in chandeliers and boasting a massive stone fireplace in which logs burned cheerfully.
A slender, dark-haired girl with wide blue eyes came forward impetuously and kissed our host lightly on the lips.
"We were getting a little worried, darling. Mummy thought something had happened to you in the fog."
The girl turned her frank gaze on us while a matronly lady with graying hair, obviously her mother, and a thickset man with a silver mustache and hair thickly powdered with white strands came forward from the background.