“He said you wasn’t to mind if he didn’t bring his friend from—somewhere—”
“Scotland Yard?”
“Yes, that’s right. He wouldn’t bring him to-night. He said you was to go ahead anyhow because the French womenfolks was coming with Constable Pritchard.”
“French women!” I exclaimed in surprise and pleasure. “Does he mean that the sisters Delambre have been brought back?”
“Sure to be,” said Toby.
“By George, I’ll be tickled to see what they look like. But what does it all mean? No one could imagine—”
Miss Lebetwood silenced me with a gesture and an eager question. “He was working here this afternoon, then, wasn’t he?”
“Yes, Miss, but it was a secret or somefing. He put the maids out of the house at half-past three.”
“Three-thirty!” I exclaimed again, indignantly now. “He didn’t waste much of his precious time in the search!” I asked the lad, “Why did he make the women-servants leave the building? He did, didn’t he?”
“Yes, sir; he was going to use some gas from a little tank he had with him all over the ground floor of the House. He said it was a deadly poisonous gas, and unless they were looking for their deaths if they got a whiff they had better go down to New Aidenn for the rest of the afternoon. Wheeler was in the search; so I drove ’em all down to the bridge in the big car,” Toby recited with pride.