"It is a gruesome and
horrible thought! Yet, perhaps you are right. What must we do, Gatton?
These people have rendered the neighborhood uninhabitable for
themselves, now, and--"
Dimly to my ears came the sound of a gun-shot.
"And have fled!" cried Gatton, springing up. "Quick! we must chance
the gas!"
"Why? What was that shot?"
"A signal! Dr. Damar Greefe and 'the cat' have escaped!"
He raced out across the landing, amid a chorus of frightened inquiries
from the inn staff. I followed him into a front room, and:
"This comes of turning my attention elsewhere for half an hour!" he
cried angrily. "I seem to be cursed with fools for assistants!"
Throwing up the window, he leaned out. I stood at his elbow; and as I
looked I saw a great red glow rising from the distant woods. The sound
of a car approaching at headlong speed reached my ears, and at the
same moment I saw the headlights.
"Hullo, there!" cried Gatton. "Blythe! Petersham!"
The car stopped, and a cry came back:
"We've lost him, sir!... and the Bell House is in flames!"
CHAPTER XXI
IN LONDON AGAIN
"Then the sudden change in the police attitude towards Eric," said
Isobel, "is not due to any discoveries which you or Inspector Gatton
have made at Friar's Park?"
"That I cannot say," I replied. "We have made certain discoveries as I
have already told you, but whilst they distinctly point to some
criminal whose identity is not yet fully established, unfortunately I
cannot say that in a legal sense they clear Coverly.
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