Detectives and Young Adventurers: The Complete Short Stories

She returned to the place and began examining postcards. A fresh-faced girl, still munching, came out of the back room.

‘I’d like these, please,’ said Tuppence. ‘And do you mind waiting whilst I just look over these comic ones?’

She sorted through a packet, talking as she did so.

‘I’m ever so disappointed you couldn’t tell me my sister’s address. She’s staying near here and I’ve lost her letter. Leigh Gordon, her name is.’

The girl shook her head.

‘I don’t remember it. And we don’t get many letters through here either – so I probably should if I’d seen it on a letter. Apart from the Grange, there isn’t many big houses round about.’

‘What is the Grange?’ asked Tuppence. ‘Who does it belong to?’

‘Dr Horriston has it. It’s turned into a nursing home now. Nerve cases mostly, I believe. Ladies that come down for rest cures, and all that sort of thing. Well, it’s quiet enough down here, heaven knows.’ She giggled.

Tuppence hastily selected a few cards and paid for them.

‘That’s Doctor Horriston’s car coming along now,’ exclaimed the girl.

Tuppence hurried to the shop door. A small two-seater was passing. At the wheel was a tall dark man with a neat black beard and a powerful unpleasant face. The car went straight on down the street. Tuppence saw Tommy crossing the road towards her.

‘Tommy, I believe I’ve got it. Doctor Horriston’s nursing home.’

‘I heard about it at the King’s Head, and I thought there might be something in it. But if she’s had a nervous breakdown or anything of that sort, her aunt and her friends would know about it surely.’

‘Ye-es. I didn’t mean that. Tommy, did you see that man in the twoseater?’

‘Unpleasant-looking brute, yes.’

‘That was Doctor Horriston.’

Tommy whistled.

‘Shifty looking beggar. What do you say about it, Tuppence? Shall we go and have a look at the Grange?’

They found the place at last, a big rambling house, surrounded by deserted grounds, with a swift mill stream running behind the house.

‘Dismal sort of abode,’ said Tommy. ‘It gives me the creeps, Tuppence. You know, I’ve a feeling this is going to turn out a far more serious matter than we thought at first.’

‘Oh, don’t. If only we are in time. That woman’s in some awful danger; I feel it in my bones.’

‘Don’t let your imagination run away with you.’

‘I can’t help it. I mistrust that man. What shall we do? I think it would be a good plan if I went and rang the bell alone first and asked boldly for Mrs Leigh Gordon just to see what answer I get. Because, after all, it may be perfectly fair and above board.’

Tuppence carried out her plan. The door was opened almost immediately by a manservant with an impassive face.

‘I want to see Mrs Leigh Gordon, if she is well enough to see me.’

She fancied that there was a momentary flicker of the man’s eyelashes, but he answered readily enough.

‘There is no one of that name here, madam.’

‘Oh, surely. This is Doctor Horriston’s place, The Grange, is it not?’

‘Yes, madam, but there is nobody of the name of Mrs Leigh Gordon here.’

Baffled, Tuppence was forced to withdraw and hold a further consultation with Tommy outside the gate.

‘Perhaps he was speaking the truth. After all, we don’t know.’

‘He wasn’t. He was lying. I’m sure of it.’

‘Wait until the doctor comes back,’ said Tommy. ‘Then I’ll pass myself off as a journalist anxious to discuss his new system of rest cure with him. That will give me a chance of getting inside and studying the geography of the place.’

The doctor returned about half an hour later. Tommy gave him about five minutes, then he in turn marched up to the front door. But he too returned baffled.

‘The doctor was engaged and couldn’t be disturbed. And he never sees journalists. Tuppence, you’re right. There’s something fishy about this place. It’s ideally situated – miles from anywhere. Any mortal thing could go on here, and no one would ever know.’

‘Come on,’ said Tuppence, with determination.

‘What are you going to do?’

‘I’m going to climb over the wall and see if I can’t get up to the house quietly without being seen.’

‘Right. I’m with you.’

The garden was somewhat overgrown and afforded a multitude of cover. Tommy and Tuppence managed to reach the back of the house unobserved.

Here there was a wide terrace with some crumbling steps leading down from it. In the middle some french windows opened on to the terrace, but they dared not step out into the open, and the windows where they were crouching were too high for them to be able to look in. It did not seem as though their reconnaissance would be much use, when suddenly Tuppence tightened her grasp of Tommy’s arm.

Someone was speaking in the room close to them. The window was open and the fragment of conversation came clearly to their ears.

‘Come in, come in, and shut the door,’ said a man’s voice irritably. ‘A lady came about an hour ago, you said, and asked for Mrs Leigh Gordon?’

Tuppence recognised the answering voice as that of the impassive manservant.

‘Yes, sir.’

‘You said she wasn’t here, of course?’

‘Of course, sir.’

‘And now this journalist fellow,’ fumed the other.

He came suddenly to the window, throwing up the sash, and the two outside, peering through a screen of bushes, recognised Dr Horriston.

‘It’s the woman I mind most about,’ continued the doctor. ‘What did she look like?’