“If that’s Doctor Wells,” warned the detective, “admit him. If it’s anybody else, call me.”
Billy grinned acquiescently and departed. The detective moved nearer to Bailey.
“Have you got a gun on you?”
“No.” Bailey bowed his head.
“Well, I’ll just make sure of that.” The detective’s hands ran swiftly and expertly over Bailey’s form, through his pockets, probing for concealed weapons. Then, slowly drawing a pair of handcuffs from his pocket, he prepared to put them on Bailey’s wrists.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
THE SIGN OF THE BAT
But Dale could bear it no longer. The sight of her lover, beaten, submissive, his head bowed, waiting obediently like a common criminal for the detective to lock his wrists in steel broke down her last defenses. She rushed into the center of the room, between Bailey and the detective, her eyes wild with terror, her words stumbling over each other in her eagerness to get them out.
“Oh, no! I can’t stand it! I’ll tell you everything!” she cried frenziedly. “He got to the foot of the stair-case—Richard Fleming, I mean,” she was facing the detective now, “and he had the blue-print you’ve been talking about. I had told him Jack Bailey was here as the gardener and he said if I screamed he would tell that. I was desperate. I threatened him with the revolver but he took it from me. Then when I tore the blue-print from him—he was shot—from the stairs—”
“By Bailey!” interjected Beresford angrily.
“I didn’t even know he was in the house!” Bailey’s answer was as instant as it was hot. Meanwhile, the Doctor had entered the room, hardly noticed, in the middle of Dale’s confession, and now stood watching the scene intently from a post by the door.