Dr. Spencer Whiles was sitting in a very comfortable easy chair, smoking a particularly good cigar, with a pile of newspapers by his side. His appearance certainly showed no signs of hardship.
His linen, and the details of his toilet generally, supplied from some mysterious source into which he had not inquired, were much improved. Notwithstanding his increased comfort, however, he was looking perplexed, even a little worried, and the cause of it was there in front of him, in the advertisement sheets of the various newspapers which had been duly laid upon his table.
The Prince came in quietly and closed the door behind him.
"Good afternoon, my friend!" he said. "I understood that you wished to see me."The doctor had made up his mind to adopt a firm attitude.
Nevertheless the genial courtesy of the Prince's tone and manner had the same effect upon him as it had upon most people. He half rose to his feet and became at once apologetic.
"I hope that I have not disturbed you, Prince," he said. "Ithought that I should like to have a word or two with you concerning something which I have come across in these journals."He tapped them with his forefinger, and the Prince nodded thoughtfully.
"Your wonderful Press!" he exclaimed. "How much it is responsible for! Well, Dr. Whiles, what have the newspapers to say to you?"The doctor handed across a carefully folded journal and pointed to a certain paragraph.
"Will you kindly read this?" he begged.
The Prince accepted the sheet and read the paragraph aloud:
"FIFTY POUNDS REWARD! Disappeared from his home in Long Whatton on Wednesday morning last, Herbert Spencer Whiles, Surgeon. The above reward will be paid to any one giving information which will lead to the discovery of his present whereabouts. Was last seen in a motor car, Limousine body, painted dark green, leaving Long Whatton in the direction of London."The Prince laid down the paper, smiling.
"Well?" he asked. "That seems clear enough. Some one is willing to give fifty pounds to know where you are."The doctor tapped the advertisement with his forefinger impressively.
"Fifty pounds!" he repeated. "There isn't a person in the world to whom the knowledge of my movements is worth fifty pounds--except--""Except?" the Prince murmured.
"Except Mr. Inspector Jacks," Dr. Whiles said slowly.
The Prince seemed scarcely to grasp the situation.
"Well," he said, "fifty pounds is not a great deal of money. Some unknown person--possibly, as you suggest, Mr. Jacks--is willing to give fifty pounds to discover your whereabouts. I, on the other hand, am giving a thousand guineas to keep you here as my guest. The odds do not seem even, do they?""Put in that way," Dr. Whiles admitted, "they certainly do not.
But there is another thing which has come into my mind."The Prince smiled and helped himself to one of the very excellent cigarettes which had been provided for the delectation of his visitor.
"Pray treat me with every confidence, Dr. Whiles," he said. "Tell me exactly what is in your thoughts.""Well, then, I will," the doctor answered. "Sitting here with nothing particular to do, one has plenty of leisure to think. For the first time, I have seriously tried to puzzle out what Mr.
Inspector Jacks really wanted with me, why he came down to ask me about the person whom I treated for injuries resulting from a bicycle accident one Wednesday evening not long ago, why he took me up to London to see if I could identify that person in a very different guise. I have tried to put the pieces together and to ask myself what he meant by it all.""With so much time upon your hands, Dr. Whiles," the Prince remarked, "you can scarcely fail to have arrived at some reasonable explanation.""I don't know whether it is reasonable or not," the doctor answered, "but the obvious explanation is getting on my nerves.
There are two things which I cannot get away from. One is that Icannot for the life of me imagine your riding a bicycle twelve or fifteen miles north of London between eleven o'clock and midnight; and the other--""Come, the other?" the Prince remarked encouragingly.
"The other," the doctor continued, "is the fact that within half a mile of my house runs the main London and North Western line.""The London and North Western Railway line," the Prince repeated, "and what has that to do with it?""This much," the doctor answered, "that on that very night, about half an hour before your--shall we call it bicycle accident?--the special train from Liverpool to London passed along that line.
You will remember the tragic occurrence which took place before she reached London, the murder of the man Hamilton Fynes. If you read the report of the evidence at the inquest, you will notice the engine driver's declaration that the only time on the whole journey when he travelled at less than forty miles an hour was when passing over the viaduct and before entering the tunnel which is plainly visible from my house.""This is very interesting," the Prince remarked, "but it is not new. We have known all this before. Perhaps, though, some fresh thing has come into your mind connected with these happenings. If so, please do not hesitate. Let me hear it.""It is a fresh thing to me," the doctor said,--"fresh, in a sense, though all the time I have had an uneasy feeling at the back of my head. I know now what it was which brought Inspector Jacks to see me. I know now what it was he had at the back of his head concerning the man who met with a bicycle accident at this psychological moment.""Inspector Jacks is a very shrewd fellow," the Prince said. "Ishould not be in the least surprised if you were entirely right."The doctor moved restlessly in his chair. His eyes remained on his companion's face, as though fascinated.
"Can't you understand," he said, "that Inspector Jacks is on your track? Rightly or wrongly, he believes that you had something to do with the murder on the train that night."The Prince nodded amiably. He seemed in no way discomposed.
