“An invalid in the house?” he remarked. “How inconvenient for you!” He laid his hand for a moment on the soldier’s arm. “I sadly fear you’re going to make a fool of yourself. And it will be such a pity.” He turned towards the stairs. “Don’t bother, please; I can find my own way out.”
III
Hugh turned back into his own room, and lighting a particularly noisy pipe, sat down in his own special chair, where James Denny found him five minutes later, with his hands deep in his pockets, and his legs crossed, staring out of the window. He asked him about lunch twice without result, and having finally been requested to go to hell, he removed himself aggrievedly to the kitchen. Drummond was under no delusions as to the risks he was running. Under-rating his opponent had never been a fault of his, either in the ring or in France, and he had no intention of beginning now. The man who could abduct an American millionaire, and drug him till he was little better than a baby, and then use a thumbscrew to enforce his wishes, was not likely to prove over-scrupulous in the future. In fact, the phit of that bullet still rang unpleasantly in his ears.
After a while he began half-unconsciously to talk aloud to himself. It was an old trick of his when he wanted to make up his mind on a situation, and he found that it helped him to concentrate his thoughts.
“Two alternatives, old buck,” he remarked, stabbing the air with his pipe. “One—give the Potts bird up at Berners Street; two—do not. Number one—out of court at once. Preposterous—absurd. Therefore—number two holds the field.” He recrossed his legs, and ejected a large wineglassful of nicotine juice from the stem of his pipe on to the carpet. Then he sank back exhausted, and rang the bell.
“James,” he said, as the door opened, “take a piece of paper and a pencil—if there’s one with a point—and sit down at the table. I’m going to think, and I’d hate to miss out anything.”
His servant complied, and for a while silence reigned.
“First,” remarked Drummond, “put down—‘They know where Potts is.’”
“Is, sir, or are?” murmured Denny, sucking his pencil.
“Is, you fool. It’s a man, not a collection. And don’t interrupt, for Heaven’s sake. Two—‘They will try to get Potts.’”