The small boy stopped and replenished his lungs. Tommy continued to stare at him. At that moment Julius rejoined him. He held an open letter in his hand.
‘I say, Hersheimmer,’ – Tommy turned to him – ‘Tuppence has gone off sleuthing on her own.’
‘Shucks!’
‘Yes, she has. She went off in a taxi to Charing Cross in the deuce of a hurry after getting a telegram.’ His eye fell on the letter in Julius’s hand. ‘Oh; she left a note for you. That’s all right. Where’s she off to?’
Almost unconsciously, he held out his hand for the letter, but Julius folded it up and placed it in his pocket. He seemed a trifle embarrassed.
‘I guess this is nothing to do with it. It’s about something else – something I asked her that she was to let me know about.’
‘Oh!’ Tommy looked puzzled, and seemed waiting for more.
‘See here,’ said Julius suddenly, ‘I’d better put you wise. I asked Miss Tuppence to marry me this morning.’
‘Oh!’ said Tommy mechanically. He felt dazed. Julius’s words were totally unexpected. For the moment they benumbed his brain.
‘I’d like to tell you,’ continued Julius, ‘that before I suggested anything of the kind to Miss Tuppence, I made it clear that I didn’t want to butt in in any way between her and you –’
Tommy roused himself.
‘That’s all right,’ he said quickly. ‘Tuppence and I have been pals for years. Nothing more.’ He lit a cigarette with a hand that shook ever so little. ‘That’s quite all right. Tuppence always said that she was looking out for –’
He stopped abruptly, his face crimsoning, but Julius was in no way discomposed.
‘Oh, I guess it’ll be the dollars that’ll do the trick. Miss Tuppence put me wise to that right away. There’s no humbug about her. We ought to gee along together very well.’
Tommy looked at him curiously for a minute, as though he were about to speak, then changed his mind and said nothing. Tuppence and Julius! Well, why not? Had she not lamented the fact that she knew no rich men? Had she not openly avowed her intention of marrying for money if she ever had the chance? Her meeting with the young American millionaire had given her the chance – and it was unlikely she would be slow to avail herself of it. She was out for money. She had always said so. Why blame her because she had been true to her creed?
Nevertheless, Tommy did blame her. He was filled with a passionate and utterly illogical resentment. It was all very well to say things like that – but a real girl would never marry for money. Tuppence was utterly cold-blooded and selfish, and he would be delighted if he never saw her again! And it was a rotten world!
Julius’s voice broke in on these meditations.
‘Yes, we ought to gee along together very well. I’ve heard that a girl always refuses you once – a sort of convention.’
Tommy caught his arm.
‘Refuses? Did you say refuses?’
‘Sure thing. Didn’t I tell you that? She just rapped out a “no” without any kind of reason to it. The eternal feminine, the Huns call it, I’ve heard. But she’ll come round right enough. Likely enough, I hustled her some –’
But Tommy interrupted regardless of decorum.
‘What did she say in that note?’ he demanded fiercely.
The obliging Julius handed it to him.
‘There’s no earthly clue in it as to where she’s gone,’ he assured Tommy. ‘But you might as well see for yourself if you don’t believe me.’
The note, in Tuppence’s well-known schoolboy writing, ran as follows:
Dear Julius,
It’s always better to have things in black and white. I don’t feel I can be bothered to think of marriage until Tommy is found. Let’s leave it till then.
Yours affectionately,
Tuppence.
Tommy handed it back, his eyes shining. His feelings had undergone a sharp reaction. He now felt that Tuppence was all that was noble and disinterested. Had she not refused Julius without hesitation? True, the note betokened signs of weakening, but he could excuse that. It read almost like a bribe to Julius to spur him on in his efforts to find Tommy, but he supposed she had not really meant it that way. Darling Tuppence, there was not a girl in the world to touch her! When he saw her – His thoughts were brought up with a sudden jerk.
‘As you say,’ he remarked, pulling himself together, ‘there’s not a hint here as to what she’s up to. Hi – Henry!’
The small boy came obediently. Tommy produced five shillings.
‘One thing more. Do you remember what the young lady did with the telegram?’
Henry gasped and spoke.
‘She crumpled it up into a ball and threw it into the grate, and made a sort of noise like “Whoop!” sir.’
‘Very graphic, Henry,’ said Tommy. ‘Here’s your five shillings. Come on, Julius. We must find that telegram.’
They hurried upstairs. Tuppence had left the key in her door. The room was as she had left it. In the fire-place was a crumpled ball of orange and white. Tommy disentangled it and smoothed out the telegram.
Come at once, Moat House, Ebury, Yorkshire, great developments – Tommy.
They looked at each other in stupefaction. Julius spoke first:
‘You didn’t send it?’
‘Of course not. What does it mean?’
‘I guess it means the worst,’ said Julius quietly. ‘They’ve got her.’
‘What?’
‘Sure thing! They signed your name, and she fell into the trap like a lamb.’
‘My God! What shall we do?’
‘Get busy, and go after her! Right now! There’s no time to waste. It’s almighty luck that she didn’t take the wire with her. If she had we’d probably never have traced her. But we’ve got to hustle. Where’s that Bradshaw?’
The energy of Julius was infectious. Left to himself, Tommy would probably have sat down to think things out for a good half-hour before he decided on a plan of action. But with Julius Hersheimmer about, hustling was inevitable.
After a few muttered imprecations he handed the Bradshaw to Tommy as being more conversant with its mysteries. Tommy abandoned it in favour of an A.B.C.
‘Here we are. Ebury, Yorks. From King’s Cross. Or St Pancras. (Boy must have made a mistake. It was King’s Cross, not Charing Cross) 12.50, that’s the train she went by; 2.10, that’s gone; 3.20 is the next – and a damned slow train, too.’
‘What about the car?’
Tommy shook his head.
‘Send it up if you like, but we’d better stick to the train. The great thing is to keep calm.’
Julius groaned.
‘That’s so. But it gets my goat to think of that innocent young girl in danger!’
Tommy nodded abstractedly. He was thinking. In a moment or two, he said:
‘I say, Julius, what do they want her for, anyway?’
‘Eh? I don’t get you?’
‘What I mean is that I don’t think it’s their game to do her any harm,’ explained Tommy, puckering his brow with the