“By Jove!” said he, “this is serious! Gerard, we’ll see you through this. But we must first put your wife in a place of safety. She ought not to stay here!”
But Audrey refused to go away.
“I must stay with Gerard,” she said. “And for that matter, what have we got to be afraid of now that Mr. Candover’s gone away?”
“Well, we can’t feel sure about that,” said Gerard dubiously. “I’m more inclined to think that he is on the premises still. Mademoiselle Laure may be keeping him close, at any rate, till she’s patched him up a bit. He was scarcely in a fit state to go out when we last saw him, was he, Geoff?”
“Hardly! However, whether he’s here or not, it’s not likely he will dare to make another attack on anybody just yet.”
“Hadn’t we better go again to the solicitor’s,” suggested Edgar, “and tell him of this fresh outrage? If he didn’t think the case strong enough before, he will now, I should think!”
“I think the best place to go to would be the police-station,” said Geoffrey.
“Not yet,” said Gerard. “I should like this gang to think we’re shy of calling in the police, so that we may have the chance of running up against some more of them.”
“Well, while waiting,” said Geoffrey, “we’ll have something to eat and drink. I’ll go and order some luncheon to be sent in from the restaurant up the street. But first, let me tell you of an odd thing that went out of my head when I came back and found the bird flown. You know you sent me for a doctor, a Dr. Fendall. You said he lived near here?”
“Yes.”