A Rogue by Compulsion: An Affair of the Secret ServiceBridges, Victor
General
A Rogue by Compulsion: An Affair of the Secret Service
Bridges, Victor
Secret service -- Fiction; Spy stories
"Tell me about George, Joyce," I went on. "What are these particular
dark doings that Tommy's hinting about?"
Joyce leaned forward with her chin on her hands, her blue eyes fixed
on mine.
"Neil," she said slowly, "I've found out something at last--something
I thought I was never going to. I know who the man was in Marks's
rooms on the day that he was murdered."
I was so surprised that I gulped down a mouthful of nearly boiling
tea.
"I wish you'd break these things more gently, Joyce," I said. "Who was
it?"
"It was Dr. McMurtrie."
I put down the teacup and stared at her in the blankest amazement.
"Dr. McMurtrie!" I repeated incredulously.
She nodded. "Listen, and I'll tell you exactly how it all happened. I
dined with George, as you know, at the Savoy on Friday, and we went
into the whole business of my going away with him. He has got that
twelve thousand pounds, Neil; there's no doubt about it. He showed me
the entry in his pass-book and the acknowledgment from the bank, and
he even offered to write me a cheque for a couple of hundred right
away, to buy clothes with for the trip."
"From what I remember of George," I said, "he must be desperately in
love with you."
Joyce gave a little shiver of disgust. "Of course I let him think I
was giving way. I wanted to find out where the money had come from,
but try as I would, I couldn't get him to tell me. That makes me feel
so certain there's something wrong about it. In the end I arranged to
dine with him again tomorrow night, when I said I'd give him my final
answer. On Saturday morning, however, I changed my mind, and wrote him
a note to say I'd come Thursday instead. I didn't mean to tie myself
to be back tomorrow, in case you wanted me here."
She paused.
"I had to go up Victoria Street, so I thought I'd leave the letter at
his office. I'd just got there, and I was standing outside the door
opening my bag, when a man came down the steps. I looked up as he
passed, and--oh Neil!--it was all I could do to stop myself from
screaming. I knew him at once; I knew his cold wicked face just as
well as if it had been only three days instead of three years. It was
the man I'd seen in Marks's rooms on the afternoon of the murder."
She stopped again, and took a deep breath.
"I was horribly excited, and yet at the same time I felt quite cool. I
let him get about ten yards away down the street, and then I started
off after him. He walked as far as the Stores. Then he called an empty
taxi that was coming past, and I heard him tell the driver to go to
the Hotel Russell. I thought about how you'd followed the man with the
scar, and I made up my mind I'd do the same thing. I had to wait for
several seconds before another taxi came by, but directly it did
I jumped in and told the man to drive me to the corner of Russell
Square.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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