“Yes; we have business here,” she said. “If, as Mr Guest suspects, some accident has befallen Malcolm Stratton, would you care to meet Myra without having been there?”
She whispered this to her brother while Guest had gone to Brettison’s door, at which he knocked sharply.
The admiral turned fiercely upon his sister, but she did not shrink.
“You know it’s right,” she said. “Be reasonable, Mark. Malcolm Stratton could not have insulted us all like this.”
“I can’t make him hear,” said Guest, after a second sharp summons at Brettison’s door. “I must fetch up a carpenter and make him force open this door.”
“You have no right to proceed to such violent measures, Mr Guest.”
“Then I shall assume the right, sir. I believe that my friend lies behind that door wounded or murdered for the sake of the money he had ready for his wedding trip, and do you think I am going to stand on punctilio at a time like this?”
Miss Jerrold looked very white and faint as she said quietly:
“He is quite right, Mark.”
“Get workmen, then, in Heaven’s name, sir, or the police.”