"
"You say he tried to arrest him. What do you mean by that?"
"I mean that Nicol Brinn, leaving Stokes locked in his chambers,
went out and has completely disappeared!"
"But the woman?"
"Ah, the woman! There's the rub. If he had lain low and followed
the woman, all might have been well. But who she was, where she
came from, and where she has gone, we have no idea."
"Nicol Brinn must have been desperate to adopt such measures?"
Detective Inspector Wessex nodded.
"I quite agree with you."
"He evidently had an appointment of such urgency that he could
permit nothing to stand in his way."
"He is a very clever man, Mr. Innes. He removed the telephone
from the room in which he had locked Stokes, so that my
blundering assistant was detained for nearly fifteen
minutes--detained, in fact, until his cries from the window
attracted the attention of a passing constable!"
"Nicol Brinn's man did not release him?"
"No, he said he had no key."
"What happened?"
"Stokes wanted to detain the servant, whose name is Hoskins, but
I simply wouldn't hear of it. I am a poor man, but I would
cheerfully give fifty pounds to know where Nicol Brinn is at this
moment."
Innes stood up restlessly and began to drum his fingers upon the
table edge. Presently he looked up, and:
"There's a shadow of hope," he said. "Rector--you know
Rector?--had been detailed by the chief to cover the activities
of Nicol Brinn.
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