The Vanished MessengerOppenheim, E. Phillips (Edward Phillips)
General
The Vanished Messenger
Oppenheim, E. Phillips (Edward Phillips)
Detective and mystery stories; Fiction
“They both are,” Hamel replied. “The man who is driving is wearing a
peaked hat. He looks like a police inspector. The man by his side is an
ordinary policeman.”
Mr. Fentolin sighed gently.
“It is very interesting,” he said. “Let us hope that we shall not see an
arrest under my roof. I should feel it a reflection upon my hospitality.
I trust, I sincerely trust, that this visit does not bode any harm to
Mr. John P. Dunster.”
Gerald rose impatiently to his feet and swung across the terrace. Mr.
Fentolin, however, called him back.
“Gerald,” he advised, “better not go away. The inspector may desire to
ask you questions. You will have nothing to conceal. It was a natural
and delightful impulse of yours to bring the man who had befriended you,
and who was your companion in that disaster, straight to your own home
for treatment and care. It was an admirable impulse, my boy. You have
nothing to be ashamed of.”
“Shall I tell him, too--” Gerald began.
“Be careful, Gerald.”
Mr. Fentolin’s words seemed to be charged with a swift, rapier-like
note. The boy broke off in his speech. He looked at Hamel and was
silent.
“Dear me,” Mrs. Fentolin murmured, “I am sure there is no need for us
to talk about this poor man as though anybody had done anything wrong
in having him here. This, I suppose, must be the Inspector Yardley whom
Lord Saxthorpe spoke of.”
“A very intelligent-looking officer, I am sure,” Mr. Fentolin remarked.
“Gerald, go and meet him, if you please. I should like to speak to him
out here.”
The dog-cart had drawn up at the front door, and the inspector had
already alighted. Gerald intervened as he was in the act of questioning
the butler.
“Mr. Fentolin would like to speak to you, inspector,” he said, “if you
will come this way.”
The inspector followed Gerald and saluted the little group solemnly. Mr.
Fentolin held out his hand.
“You got my telephone message, inspector?” he asked.
“We have not received any message that I know of, sir,” the inspector
replied. “I have come over here in accordance with instructions received
from headquarters--in fact from Scotland Yard.”
“Quite so,” Mr. Fentolin assented. “You’ve come over, I presume, to make
enquiries concerning Mr. John P. Dunster?”
“That is the name of the gentleman, sir.”
“I only understood to-day from my friend Lord Saxthorpe,” Mr. Fentolin
continued, “that Mr. Dunster was being enquired about as though he had
disappeared. My nephew brought him here after the railway accident at
Wymondham, since when he has been under the care of my own physician. I
trust that you have nothing serious against him?”
“My first duty, sir,” the inspector pronounced, “is to see the gentleman
in question.”
“By all means,” Mr. Fentolin agreed. “Gerald, will you take the
inspector up to Mr. Dunster’s rooms? Or stop, I will go myself.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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