Fischer was obviously as much astonished at the recognition as I was concerned. "You know Bulich, then?" he asked.
Glocken paused and appeared to sense something of the position and answered with a cunning squint at me: "I know him for a first-class workman."
"You're right," agreed Fischer, and then explained the object of the visit. Glocken was in the smuggling ring and looked after a very important and profitable branch—the smuggling of chemicals for ammunition. These were brought by aeroplane; it being deemed too risky to resort to the ordinary method. A consignment had arrived the previous evening, the pilot, a Dutchman named Vandervelt, had had an accident in landing, and I was wanted to put the thing right.
There was no way of getting out of it, and what objection there might have been was more than compensated for when Fischer drew me aside and told me he had arranged with Glocken that if my sister would venture the flying trip, she could go with the Dutchman. I agreed without asking Nessa; and as Fischer's car was now ready for the road we drove away in it.
Glocken sat in front with me and promptly started his questions. Very awkward questions some of them were too: about our former meeting; why I had not mentioned I knew Mrs. Fischer at the inn; why I had said I was coming from Osnabrück, when old Fischer had told him a very different story; and at last enough to show that he had seen the murder poster and was inclined to connect it with me.
Having in this way thoroughly scared me, as he thought, he broached the subject of Nessa's flight and asked what it was worth, hinting that Vandervelt was something of a bloodsucker. I had still an ample supply of money; about a couple of hundred pounds, some four thousand marks; and being prepared to part with every pfennig to get Nessa away, it was a considerable relief to find that it was to be a matter of bribing.
"Couple of hundred marks, enough?" I suggested.
"You don't know Vandervelt, or you wouldn't offer a trifle like that," he said, shaking his head.
"How much then? I'm not yet a partner in Krupp's, remember."
"What's it worth to you?"