"No, sir, thank you," answered "Crumbs," moving towards the door. John noticed, as he went, that his nose had been flattened at the bridge, as though at some time or other a heavy blow had fallen upon it.
"I only wondered," John went on, "why you came into my room."
"Merely to tell you about the cake, sir."
He went out, closing the door quietly behind him. When the door was shut between himself and John, he drew himself suddenly erect, and listened for a moment, then moved quickly away down the passage.
CHAPTER XIII
"'Crumbs' is the man," thought John the moment he opened his eyes next morning. During the night he had been awake for hours pondering the situation, and this was the decision he had arrived at. He decided, however, to say nothing of his suspicions to Hobin or to anyone else until "Crumbs" had further committed himself. Possibly, after all, he was mistaken; only time could tell. The first thing he did, however, when breakfast was at an end, was to write a note to Dacent Smith, asking that Private Sims's history might be discreetly inquired into.
"I think Private Sims is not quite what he seems," said John, concluding his letter. Nevertheless, if "Crumbs" was the suspicious character John believed him to be, he possessed an extraordinary talent for hiding his guilt.
John had pursued his investigations with such closeness during the past days, he now felt that the time had come when he might reasonably seek a certain amount of relaxation.
Therefore the morning of the tenth day saw him briskly descending the long steps cut in the face of the cliff to the lower fort. Here, immediately beyond the fort gates, a hired car awaited him. Manton stepped into the car after answering the challenge of the sentry, and drove down the long, winding road. A second sentry challenged him at the foot of the fort road, and thereafter the car bowled merrily along until it reached the gates of Colonel Treves's house at Freshwater.
John was wondering what he should say to the old gentleman. During the past weeks nothing had created a deeper impression on his mind than the pathetic figure of Bernard Treves's father. The old man, the soul of honour, cursed with a worthless son, appealed intensely to the sympathetic side of John's nature. John had learnt something of Bernard Treves's recent life from Dacent Smith. Following the discovery that the young man had been associated with Manwitz and Cherriton, he had been kept in a nursing home in strict confinement. An attempt had been made to cure him of his drug habit, with the result that he had suffered an utter physical collapse, and now was lying seriously ill. John, in discussing the matter with Dacent Smith, had mentioned the old Colonel, and the deception that had been practised upon him.