"Tut, Parker," said Pons severely. "We have found Miss Helstone upon the road in the early hours of the morning when we were driving through the district, brought her home with us and are now returning her to her employer. The man Basden will have to see us. If there are such strange goings-on at his estate, he will deem it imperative to discover just exactly what the outside world knows."
"Of course, Pons. I follow you."
Pons turned to our visitor.
"Do you feel up to it, Miss Helstone?"
"If you gentlemen will accompany me, Mr. Pons."
"That is settled, then."
The girl looked ruefully at her bedraggled coat and her muddied hoots.
"If you will give me an hour or so, Mr. Pons, I must get to the shops and purchase a few things."
"Certainly, Miss Helstone. If you will give me your parole?"
"I do not understand, Mr. Pons."
"If you will promise to come back within the hour."
Our visitor flushed and glanced from Pons to me.
"Of course, gentlemen. I am over my fright now and am as anxious as you to know what is happening at Clitherington."
"Very well, then."
Pons looked at his watch.
"It is a quarter past eight now. Shall we say ten o'clock at the latest?"
"I will be here, Mr. Pons."
When I returned from showing our visitor to the front door, Pons was pacing up and down in front of the fireplace, furiously shoveling blue smoke from his pipe over his shoulder.
"This beats everything, Pons," I said. "I have never come across such an extraordinary story."
"Does it not, Parker? What do you make of it? Let us just have your views."
"Well, Pons," I said cautiously. "I hardly know where to begin. There is something curious, surely, about the high salary being paid to this young lady for her purely nominal duties."
"You have hit the crux of the matter, Parker. Inadvertently, perhaps, but part of the central mystery, certainly."
"Ah, I am improving then, Pons," I went on. "But I confess that I cannot see far into this tangle. The children who speak a different language from their father, the nocturnal habits of such young people, the invalid in the sealed wing, the heavily guarded estate, the floodlit promenades. And who is the bearded man who sat behind the screen?"
Solar Pons took the pipe from between his strong teeth and looked at me with piercing eyes.
"Who indeed, Parker? You have retained the salient points admirably and isolated the most important. You are at your most succinct, my dear fellow, and it is evident that my little lessons in the ratiocinative process have not been entirely lost."
"Let me have your views, Pons."
"It is foolish to theorize without sufficient data, Parker. But I see a few features that must resolve themselves with determined application. It is obvious why Miss Helstone was engaged, but I would rather not speculate further at this stage."
"It is far from obvious to me, Pons," I said somewhat bitterly.
"Well, well, Parker, I am sure that if you employ your gray matter to good advantage, the solution will soon come to you."
And with that I had to be content until Pons returned from some mysterious errand of his own. I had just telephoned my locum when I heard his footsteps upon the stairs.
"I have hired a car, my dear fellow. If you will just step around to the garage in the next street and familiarize yourself with its controls, we will make our little expedition into the wilds of Surrey. An, here is Miss Helstone now."
Our client's step was light and she looked transformed as Mrs. Jonnson showed her into the sitting room.
"I am quite ready now, Mr. Pons."
Pons looked at her approvingly.
"Good, Miss Helstone. There are just a few more preparations. I have our plan of campaign mapped out. Parker, you will need your revolver."
"Revolver, Pons?"
"Certainly. I do not think the danger lies within the house. But the gentlemen who broke into the grounds appear to me to be an entirely different quantity altogether. Is there a tolerable inn in this village of Clitherington, Miss Helstone?"
"The Roebuck is very well spoken of, Mr. Pons."
"Excellent. We shall make that our headquarters, Parker."
I went to get my revolver and packed it in my valise. When I returned from the garage with the car, Pons and Miss Helstone were at the door of 7B in conversation with Mrs. Johnson, Pons well supplied with blankets, for the day was a bitter one indeed. There was the usual tangle of traffic in town, but I think I acquitted myself rather well, losing my way only once at a major junction, and we were soon well on the way to Surrey, the engine humming quietly while Pons and Miss Helstone, in the rear seats, conversed in low tones.
We arrived in the village of Clitherington about midday, smoke ascending in lazy spirals from the chimneys of the cluster of red-roofed houses that comprised the hamlet. As Miss Helstone had told us, the Roebuck was a comfortable, old-fashioned house with roaring fires and a friendly, well-trained staff. When we had deposited our baggage, Pons, Miss Helstone and I repaired to the main lounge for a warming drink after our journey, while Pons put the finishing touches to our strategy.
As we sat at a side table, he looked sharply at a tall, cadaverous man in a frock coat of somber color, who was just leaving the room.
"Memory, Parker," he said sharply. "Quite going. Once upon a time I should have been able to recall that man in a flash. A doctor, certainly. And an eminent one if I'm not mistaken. You did not see him?"
I shook my head.
"I was attending to the inner man, Pons. Is the matter of any importance?"
Pons shook his head. "Perhaps not, Parker, but the name is struggling to get out."
"Perhaps it will come later, Pons. In the meantime…"
"In the meantime we have much to do," he interrupted, draining his glass and getting to his feet. He smiled reassuringly at our companion.
"And now, Miss Helstone, to penetrate your den of mystery."
4
A drive of about twenty minutes over rough, unpaved roads, the traces of which Ponshad already noted on our visitor's boots, brought us up against a high brick wall that ran parallel to the highway for several hundred yards.
"That is the wall of the estate, Mr. Pons," said our client in a low voice.
"Do not distress yourself, Miss Helstone," said Pons warmly. "I would not ask you to go inside again if I did not think it necessary. And, as I have already pointed out, you are in no danger from the occupants of The Priory unless I miss my guess. The shot came from the men who broke into the grounds; therefore the peril is from without."
Miss Helstone gave a relieved smile.
"Of course, Mr. Pons. You are right. But what could those men have wanted with me?"
"That is why we are here, Miss Helstone. Just pull over in front of those gates, Parker."
It was indeed a somber sight as we drew near; the sky was lowering and dark, and it was so cold that it seemed as though it might snow at any minute. The road ran arrow-straight past the high walls of the estate and two tall, gloomy iron gates with a lodge set next to them framed a drive that was lost among dark belts of trees.
I drew up at the entrance lodge and sounded the horn. Almost at once a roughly dressed, dark man appeared, a sullen look upon his face.
"Open the gates," I called above the noise of the engine. "Inform your master that Miss Helstone is here."
As I spoke, our client showed herself at the rear passenger window and the big man's jaw dropped with surprise.
"One moment, sir. I must just inform the house," he said in a marked foreign accent.
He shouted something, and a second man whom I had not seen set off at a run along the driveway and disappeared. I switched off the engine and we waited for ten minutes. All this time Pons had said nothing, but I was aware of his comforting presence at my back. The sentry at the gate — for that was his obvious function — stood with arms folded behind the locked portals and stared impassively in front of him.