The girl's face turned white. She looked over Pons' shoulder toward the far end of the Lion House, where the two keepers were still engrossed in conversation. She turned back to my companion.
"You know something, Mr. Pons?"
"Let us say I suspect something, Miss Westover. Something involving you and Hardcastle and Hodgson. Am I right?"
The girl bit her lip again.
"There was no harm in it, Mr. Pons," she said sullenly.
"Though I do not know how you could have guessed." "Intuition combined with sharp eyesight, Miss Westover.
I have no doubt you saw no harm in it, but great harm has flowed from it."
The girl's eyes were open and tears glimmered on her lashes.
"I don't know what you are talking about, Mr. Pons." Solar Pons shook his head.
"That is certainly true, my dear young lady. But I advise you to break off the association without delay, as the man concerned will shortly be in considerable trouble."
He put his fingers to his lips.
"Your fiancé is coming back, Miss Westover. Absolute discretion?"
The girl nodded, her face still white.
"Absolute discretion, Mr. Pons. And thank you." Solar Pons smiled thinly.
"Learn to profit by the experience, Miss Westover. I am an excellent judge of human nature, and you will not do better than young Hardcastle."
And saluting the pair of them, for Hardcastle had now come up with us, he moved away toward the entrance of the Lion House. As soon as we were out of earshot, I caught him by the arm.
"What on earth was all that about, Pons?"
"Just a little well-meant advice, Parker. I think the young lady will have profited by the lesson."
"I wish I knew what you were talking about, Pons," I grumbled.
"Patience, Parker, patience. All will be explained in due course. But I must confess that one thing still puzzles me. I now have two distinct strands but no possible motive for the second."
Solar Pons paused and looked at my thunderstruck face before bursting into laughter.
"Really, Parker, your features present an indescribable picture! But it is almost dusk. I suggest we use the passes with which Sir Clive has furnished us and remain on the grounds until after dark. Let us just give it an hour. Perhaps we can spend the time in one of the heated tropical houses because the night promises to be cold."
We were outside now and the air was indeed biting. "But what on earth are we going to do, Pons?"
My companion stared at me, his lean, feral features alight with excitement.
"I have the feeling that something that should have happened has not yet happened. Call it a sixth sense, if you will. But I am rarely wrong. A number of incidents have occurred, some trivial, some serious. In my opinion they are but stage dressing for something else."
My puzzlement must have been evident on my features, for Pons slowed his walk and looked at me with wry affection.
"My dear Parker, I do not know what will happen or where danger will strike. The zoo grounds are large and extensive, the houses and animal enclosures numerous and complicated. But I should feel more at ease if you would stay with me for an hour or two."
"Certainly, Pons," said I. "But if we are going to hang about in the cold, I suggest we-first go to the restaurant or the Fellows' dining room. There is an excellent bar there, and I have a first-rate prescription for keeping out the cold."
Solar Pons chuckled.
"There are unsuspected depths to you, Parker. Sometimes it is difficult to remember you are a physician."
And with which sardonic comment he set off at a brisk pace across the grounds.
8
Mist swirled silently in the darkness and, far off, a faint gas lamp sent out a drowning beam of light toward us. The coughing roar of a lion echoed, melancholy and remote across the park, and left a somber reflection in my heart. I shifted my feet and stamped them cautiously, conscious of Pons' disapproving face beside me in the gloom. We stood in the deep porch of one of the mammal houses and rested briefly. We had been walking around the Zoological Gardens for an hour, but it seemed as though we had covered miles. I was about to venture an observation, when Pons' hand was upon my arm and I heard the hissed intake of his breath.
A moment later I caught the sound that his sharp ears had already heard; the agitated beat of a man's feet running through the white blanket. It was far off, and for a moment I could not place the direction. Then we both caught the urgent note of the voice. There was fear and panic in it as it called, "Murder! Police!"
Pons gave a muffled exclamation.
"We are too late, Parker! I blame myself for this. As quick as you can."
He was already disappearing into the fog, and I had diffuculty in keeping his tall, lean figure in sight. He moved fast, despite the whiteness that hemmed us in, and his sharp eyes unerringly guided us around obstructions and kept us in the right direction.
Within two minutes we could hear the muffled sound of more footsteps in response to urgent calls, and figures were all around us. A police officer lurched into me, his bull's-eye lantern making a pale glow, and recoiled with an apology.
"Dr. Parker isn't it? Up near the next entrance, sir."
When Pons and I arrived, there was a small knot of people, and the purposeful figure of Superintendent Heathfield detached itself from the mêlée.
"Good to see you both, Mr. Pons. It is fatal this time, I am afraid. In the gorilla enclosure."
Solar Pons nodded, his face impassive and dream-like in the light of the lanterns.
"That has solved one mystery, Superintendent."
The words were spoken almost to himself, and I saw the police officer look at him with a start. With the frightened attendant who had given the alarm leading the way, we were soon at the scene of the tragedy. It had taken place in a large wood and cement building that housed the greater primates. The main door had been broken, the glass panel shattered.
The leading attendants and the uniformed police officers were pressing inside, when Pons stopped them with a sudden exclamation.
"Hello! This is curious indeed, Parker. The glass has been broken from inside."
Heathfield and _I exchanged puzzled glances. Pons had stooped to examine the shattered fragments of glass that lay on the cement walk outside the entrance.
"That is so, Mr. Pons. Why on earth would anyone want to break out?"
Solar Pons smiled an enigmatic smile.
"Think about it, my dear fellow. It leads to one inescapable conclusion."
"Perhaps, Pons," I said shortly. "But can we not leave this until later? It is cold out here, and if murder has been done inside.
"You are quite right, Parker. Lead on, Superintendent."
I hurried in the wake of my companions, and in a few moments more we came upon one of the most bizarre and horrific scenes I had ever encountered either during my years with Pons or within my medical experience.
The house was divided into two parts with a broad cement aisle separating the heated enclosures on either side. Chimpanzees, gibbons and large apes sat sullenly in their respective cages, blinking in the dim electric light, as though they had been awakened from sleep. There was a welcome warmth in here, and I guessed that the stout metal walls at the rear of the cages, each complete with sliding door, gave way to roomy enclosures in the open air, which the animals occupied in summer.
The attendant who had raised the alarm was standing by a large, thickly barred enclosure at the far end of the house; a dim form loomed gigantically within and made shuffling noises in the deep straw and other litter that covered the floor. A constable near me shone his electric lantern within the bars and disclosed a dark-clad human figure, which lay at a grotesque angle. Motionless and rigid, it was a foot or two from the indistinct shape.