“Yes! She told me that she had meant to come to you herself. She sent me instead. She thought it best. This man Dunster is being kept alive because there is something Miles wants him to tell him, and he won’t. But to-night, if he is still alive, if he won’t tell, they mean to make away with him. They are afraid.”
“Miss Price told you this?” Hamel asked gravely.
Mrs. Fentolin nodded.
“Yes! She said so. She knows—she knows everything. She has been like the rest of us. She, too, has suffered. She, too, has reached the breaking point. She loved him before the accident. She has been his slave ever since. Listen!”
She suddenly clutched his arm. They were both silent. There was nothing to be heard but the wind. She leaned a little closer to him.
“Lucy Price sent me here to-night because she was afraid that it was to-night they meant to take him from his hiding-place and kill him. The police have left off searching for Mr. Dunster in Yarmouth and at The Hague. There is a detective in the neighbourhood and another one on his way here. They are afraid to keep him alive any longer.”
“Where was Mr. Fentolin when you left?” Hamel asked.
“I asked Lucy Price that,” she replied. “When she came to my room, there were no signs of his leaving. She told me to come and tell you everything. Do you know where Mr. Dunster is?”
Hamel shook his head.
“Within a few yards of here,” she went on. “He is in the boat-house, the place where Miles told you he kept a model of his invention. They brought him here the night before they put his clothes on Ryan and sent him off disguised as Mr. Dunster, in the car to Yarmouth.”