"You have not found him, then?" she cried. "Can it be doing you any harm to say what has happened?"
"We have not found Grell—yet," he answered. "We found where he had been hiding, but he got away."
A sigh of relief came from between her lips. She scarcely noticed the abruptness with which he ended the interview, and returned his bow almost with cordiality. Foyle only stayed long enough to thrust
a few papers into the safe, and then followed her out. Two resounding smacks called his attention to the landing of the private stairs, where Chief Detective-Inspector Green was struggling in the embrace of a stout, matronly woman, while a half-suppressed snigger came from a passing clerk.
Green, his solemn face crimson, pushed the woman gently away from him towards a girl and a young man who were apparently waiting for her. "There, there; that will do. Let us know if everything does all right. Won't keep you a moment, sir," and he disappeared along the corridor.
When he returned he had recovered something of his usual impassivity. But he could not be oblivious to the twinkle in Foyle's eyes. "Women are the very devil," he said as if in answer. "There's no knowing what they'll do. Now, the young girl there wanted to run away with a man of fifty, who is already a married man. So her mother—the old lady you saw kissing me—brought her up here, evidently under the impression that we can do anything. I took the girl into my room and gave her some good advice, telling her she had much better marry the young man you saw—they had been engaged, and quarrelled—and I told of some cases like her own that had come under my own knowledge. She wept a bit, admitted I was right, and then suddenly flung herself on top of me and started hugging and kissing me. I got her outside, told her mother that the matter was all right, when I'm blessed if she didn't try it on too. That was just as you came out. You may have noticed that I side-stepped warily round the young man."
"Be careful, Green. Is she a widow?" laughed Foyle. And then, more seriously: "How far is it to this place? Our man may be out when we get there."
"Shall we leave it till to-night, sir? It will be more certain then."
"No, we'll chance it. Let's have a look at the letter." He fished a note out of his pocket and paused to read it through, carefully replacing it in its envelope as he finished.