The Japanese extended both hands, while the appeal of his smile deepened. “Too bad, velly,” he murmured, “but not leally any g’lost, no, nev’.”
“Don’t you believe in the ghost?” asked Colonel Winter.
“No, me Clistian boy, no believe not’ing.”
“All the samee,” said the colonel, laboriously swinging himself from his vantage-ground of the motor seat to the flat top of the wall, thence dropping to the greensward below, “allee samee, like go in house hunt ghost.” He crackled a bank-note in the palm of the slim brown hand, smiling and nodding as if to break the force of his brusque action. Meanwhile, Birdsall had safely shut off his engine before he placed himself beside the others with an agility hardly to be expected of his rotund build.
As for the caretaker, whether because he perceived himself outnumbered, or because he was really void of suspicion, he accepted the money with outward gratitude and proffered his guidance through the garden and the orchards. He slipped into the rôle of cicerone with no atom of resistance; he was voluble; he was gracious; he was artlessly delighted with his señors. In spite of this flood of suavity, however, there seemed to be no possibility of persuading him to admit them to the house.
Assured of this, the two fell back for a second, time for the merest eyeflash from the detective to the soldier, who at once limped briskly up to the Jap, saying: “We are very much obliged to you; this is a beautiful house, beautiful gardens; but we want to see the ghost; and if you can give me young Mr. Arnold’s address I will see him—or write, and we can come back.”
The gardener, with many apologies and smiles, did not know Mr. Arnold’s honorable address, but he drew out a soiled card, explaining that it bore the name of the gentleman in charge of the property. Birdsall, peering over the Jap’s shoulders, added that it was the card of a well-known legal firm.
“Then,” said the colonel with deliberation, “we will thank you again for your courtesy, and—what’s that?”
The Jap turned; they all started at the barking detonation of some explosion; while they gazed about them there came another booming sound, and they could see smoke pouring from the chimney and leaking through the window joints of a room in the rear of the house. Like a hare, not breaking his wind by a single cry, the Jap sped toward the court. The others were hard on his heels, though the colonel limped and showed signs of distress by the time they reached the great iron door.
The Jap pulled out a key; he turned it and swung the door barely wide enough to enter, calling on them to stay out; he would tell them if he needed them.