“Constable Moriarty,” said Cole; “if he was to say that it would be a pleasure to him to go round to the yard and get her bicycle for her the way she’d be ready to go with him and the sergeant——”
“I see,” said Lord Manton.
“She’d go with him to the yard,” said Mr. Goddard. “Don’t forget that.”
“She would,” said Cole, “and on the way there she’d see Moriarty’s bicycle and another, as it might be the sergeant’s.”
“But of course it wouldn’t be the sergeant’s,” said Lord Manton.
“It would not. The sergeant and myself might be off by that time a good bit along the road to Rosivera. But the bicycle she’d see would have a look about it as if it might be the sergeant’s. It could have his cape strapped on it and maybe his name somewhere about so as she’d notice it.”
“It’s just possible,” said Mr. Goddard, “that if she has the sort of confidence you say she has in Moriarty she’ll be taken in for five minutes; but at the end of that time she’ll be off after you.”
“I wouldn’t wonder,” said Cole, “but the back tyre of her own bicycle might be flat.”
He looked at Jimmy O’Loughlin as he spoke. His face was entirely devoid of any expression, but Jimmy was a man of quick wit.