"In a sense it was disappointing," Lutchester complained. "I had pictured for myself a dramatic entrance … a quiet turning of the key, a soft approach—owing to my shoes," he reminded her—"a cough, perhaps, or a breath … discovery, me with a revolver in my hand pointed to the arch-villain—'If you stir you're a dead man!' … Natural collapse of the villain. With my left hand I slash the bonds which hold Graham, with my right I cover the miscreants. One of them, perhaps, might creep behind me, and I hesitate. If I move my revolver the other two will get the drop on me—I think that is the correct expression? A wonderful moment, that, Miss Van Teyl!"
"But it didn't happen," she protested.
"Ah! I forgot that," he acknowledged. "Still, I was prepared, I had the revolver all right. But as you say, it didn't happen. I made my way to the chapel door, let myself in, found our friend lying in a half-comatose state upon one of the blue plush Henry sofas, in the shadow of a horrible deal pulpit. I gathered that he had been left there to reflect upon his sins. There was a bottle of remarkably fine brandy within reach, which I tested, and with which I dosed our friend here. I then cut away his bonds, arm in arm we walked down the aisle, I locked up the place, threw the key away, kicked my shins half-a-dozen times crossing that disgusting little plot of land, climbed boldly to the top of the wall, and behold!"
Pamela smiled upon him in congratulatory fashion.
"On the whole," she said, "I am quite glad that I telephoned to you."
"You showed a sound discretion," he admitted.
"If he had not been lame," she confessed, "I should have sent to
Captain Holderness."
"That would have been a great mistake," Lutchester assured her. "Holderness is a good fellow but devoid of imagination. He is great on constituted authority. He would have probably marched up with a squad of heavy-footed policemen—and found nothing."
"Yet I must confess," Pamela persisted, with a frankness unaccountable even to herself, "that if I could have thought of any one else I should never have telephoned to you."
"And why not?"