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Flicking over the leaves again, he added, `In case we can't get hold of him to night, I had better look up the number of the Prefecture at Nice. That is the top police H.Q. in this part of the world, and in a case like this it is a waste of time going to the small fry.' He had just found the second number when John came rushing in. Still breathless from having run up the steep garden path, he panted

`I was right! The de Grasses have got her. Jules carried her off from her own villa about an hour ago. Come on! I'll get out the car!'

`Steady on!' C. B. admonished him. `Let's have such details as you can give us first.'

Between gasps to get his breath back, John reported, `Old Maria says Christina came in at about a quarter to eight. She ran upstairs and came down again two minutes later. She was carrying a small suitcase and immediately went out with it. But she returned almost at once. Maria didn't see her come back, but she saw the lights go on in the sitting room. From her kitchen she can see the glow they throw from ... from the side window of the sitting room on to the trees in the garden; so ... so she looked in to see who was there. It was Christina and a chap who answers the description of Jules. They were arguing about something. She must have given him a drink and had one with him. Their glasses are still on the table. Maria didn't hear them leave. But she doesn't think they could have remained there much more than ten minutes. She happened to glance at her clock just before the sitting room lights were switched off again, and it had not yet gone eight.'

`Good! Now we at least have a line of enquiry we can pursue.' C. B. picked up the telephone.

`What are you going to do?' John asked impatiently. `Ring up the police or rather an old friend of mine who is an ex police officer of exceptional ability.'

`Then for God's sake hurry ! They must be nearly at

St. Tropez by now. If we don't start at once we may not

arrive in time to prevent him from putting off to sea with

her in that damn' yacht.'

C. B. gave the number of Inspector Malouet's apartment, then covered the receiver with his hand. listen, partner. I'm not going to let you run your head into a hornet's nest, or land up in a cell at a French police station either, if I can prevent it. We are by no means certain yet that Jules is taking her to the yacht, and ...'

`Where the hell else would he take her?'

`Maybe to some hide out anywhere between Nice and Toulon. There must be plenty of places along the coast where he has pals who would keep her locked up for the night. Remember, he has got to get her back to England by the 6th, and he couldn't possibly do that by sea. Getting her on to the yacht could be only a temporary measure anyhow. He probably means to drug her, then have her flown home.'

`Still, the fact that he tried to get her on the yacht last night is the only line we have to go on.'

`Agreed; and we'll draw that covert as soon as I've made this call.'

`Can't you telephone your police friend later if we fail to find her on the yacht?'

No, we must get this chap moving as soon as we possibly can. You don't seem to realise what we are up against. That yacht is private property, just as much as if it were a house. You can't go busting your way aboard like a bandit. If you did, de Grasse's boys would be fully entitled to slog you on the head, then hand you over to the police. You have to be able to show justification for any act of that sort.'

`C. B., you make me tired! What better justification could we have than knowing that poor kid has been carried off by thugs?'

Molly had never known her son display such rudeness to an older man. It crossed her mind that, blare about girls as he liked to think himself, Christina, by striking an entirely new note, might have bowled him over. That could explain both the extreme agitation he was showing and his lapse of manners. Nevertheless, she spoke with unusual sharpness

`That will do, John. Colonel Verney has not wasted an unnecessary moment; and he is the best judge of what should be done.'

`Sorry!' he muttered. `But I'm damned if I'll let Jules get away with this. I'm damned if I will.'

At that moment the telephone began to make shrill whistling sounds. C. B. jangled the receiver, said, "Allo! 'Alto!' and repeated the number, but nothing happened the other end; so he turned his smiling grey eyes on John.

`What I meant was some legal, or at least moral, justification. Strictly speaking, we are not entitled to take any action ourselves, and should turn the whole job over to the police. If there had been signs of a struggle in her bedroom, or old Maria had seen her hauled from her villa by a couple of woolly headed Negroes, we'd have some excuse for taking a hand ourselves; but as it is ...'

Again the telephone made odd noises, but again no satisfactory result followed; so he went on, `As it is, she walked out of this house of her own accord, and left her own villa a quarter of an hour later with Jules. He is, for all practical purposes, a respectable citizen, and as far as we know she went with him perfectly willingly; so if you butted in, from the legal point of view you wouldn't have a leg to stand on.'

`I'm her fiancé, aren't I?' John demanded truculently.

`Yes. And I give you full marks now for your foresight in thinking up that bright idea. In France, as marriage is so mixed up with cash and property, people take a much more serious view of a fiancé’s rights than they do in England. But even that would not condone your breaking into what amounts to a private dwelling, without obvious cause. It will help, though, in getting a search warrant if we can bring evidence to the effect that she was definitely taken on to the yacht.'

Once more noises came from the telephone, and this time it proved to be the number that C. B. had called. With a nod to the others, he said, `Our luck is in. It is Malouet himself.' Then he spoke for several moments in his own particular brand of French. It was good French from the point of view of fluency, but it did not sound good, as he spoke very quietly, and without using any of the ejaculations or inflections of the voice which are such a feature of that language.

When he hung up, he said, `As you may have noticed, I had to be a bit obscure; but the old boy tumbled to my meaning. He confirms my own view of the matter. In the remote chance of our happening on somebody prepared to vouch for it that they saw Christina either taken aboard by force, or carried aboard unconscious, the authorities will not hold it against us if we force our way on to the yacht and insist on being taken to her. But if such evidence as we can get is to the effect that she went aboard of her own free will, the only way in which we can insure against a nasty come back is for John, as her fiancé, to swear an affidavit, stating that he believes her to have been lured aboard for an illegal purpose; then we will be granted a search warrant.'

`So that is all we have been wasting a precious ten minutes to be told,' said John sarcastically. `Why didn't you get on to your office in Whitehall and ask them to send us a . couple of hundred forms to fill up?'

`Johnny!' his mother exclaimed. `You will apologise at once!'

`Sorry, C. B.,' he murmured a trifle sullenly. `But for goodness' sake, let's get going and do something.'

C. B. gave him a good natured pat on the shoulder. `That's all right, John. Now you can run and get the car out.'

`I'll just slip upstairs,' said Molly.

John gave her a quick look. `Going to collect the armaments, Mumsie? Good! I'll come with you.'

`What's that?' exclaimed C. B., as they ran across the hall. Then he called after them, `If you are thinking of taking any of those museum pieces of yours, Molly, scrap the idea. Otherwise you can count me out.'