“Certainly, sir, certainly. And if in the meantime I can place any other car at your service I shall be pleased to do so.”
“I'll let you know,” said Westerham, and he walked abruptly away.
He went rapidly westward and reached the park. There he sat down in the darkness and made a further effort to understand the drastic and impudent measures which Melun was taking.
If he could have come across that person at that particular moment there is little doubt but that he would have shaken the life out of him. Westerham's anger was seldom roused, but when it mastered him it was terrible, and the effects were apt to be disastrous to the object of his wrath.
Now, turn things over in his mind as he might he could see little chance of coming to any conclusion until he could obtain the truth from Melun himself. But where was Melun? It would be ridiculous to make any further inquiries at his house. Crow, too, would certainly know little, and Bagley less.
True, there was Mme. Estelle. He would see her.
Leaping to his feet, he almost ran to the cab-rank at Hyde Park corner, and, hiring a taxicab, ordered the man to make the best speed possible to Laburnum Road.
The man did his best, and in some twenty minutes' time the taxicab entered the little cul-de-sac, the features of which Westerham was now beginning to know too well.
He rang the bell impatiently, but the door in the wall failed to open. He rang again and again, but there was no response.