‘This is horrible,’ he said. ‘I suppose they got him when they discovered that he had parted with the package. Pretty quick work,’ he added thoughtfully. ‘I wonder how they rumbled him so soon.’
There was silence for a moment or two after he had spoken, then Prenderby looked up.
‘The store they set by that package must be enormous, on the face of it,’ he said. ‘Clearly they’ll do anything for it. I wonder what their next move will be?’
‘He’s searched our rooms,’ said Abbershaw, ‘and I believe he intended to lock us in the dining-room and search us immediately after, but his experiences in the bedrooms taught him the utter impossibility of ever making a thorough search of a house like this. It couldn’t be done in the time he had at his disposal. I think he realizes that his only chance of getting hold of what he wants is to terrorize us until someone hands it over.’
‘Then I hope to goodness whoever has got it gets the wind up soon,’ said Prenderby.
Campion nodded and sat down gingerly on the edge of the bed. ‘I expect he’ll have you people up one at a time and bully the truth out of you until he gets what he wants,’ he said.
‘For a great crook he hasn’t proved very methodical, so far,’ said Abbershaw. ‘He might have known from the first that there’d be no point in churning everybody’s clothes up.’
Albert Campion leaned forward. ‘You know, you fellows don’t understand this bright specimen of German culture,’ he said, with more gravity than was usual in his falsetto voice. ‘He’s not used to little details of this sort. He’s the laddie at the top – the big fellow. He just chooses his men carefully and then says, “You do this”, and they do it. He doesn’t go chasing round the country opening safes or pinching motor-cars. I don’t believe he even plans the coups himself. He just buys criminal brains, supplies the finance, and takes the profits. That’s why I can’t understand him being here. There must have been something pretty big afoot, or he’d have had a minion in for it. Gosh! I wish I was well out of it.’
Abbershaw and Prenderby echoed his wish devoutly in their hearts, and Prenderby was the first to speak.
‘I wonder whom he’ll start on first,’ he said thoughtfully.