Lone Pine London, page 17
At last Wilson and Mr. Morton came running down the steps.
"Get into the car," the former hissed. "We haven't dared to tell them we've got a mixed school with us. It's O.K. We're after them and the police say not to worry about Jon and David. They daren't hurt them. They haven't seen the car but DSS could almost have been in Guildford by the time the Clarion telephoned them... The woman who calls herself Christabel is really a Mrs. Sandford. She has a good shop here but she lives about six miles away in a big house on White Sands Heath. The police are leading the way in a car and I've told them I must be there to get my story, and Mr. Morton must be there because of the boys. Don't let the police see the twins or Harriet. You're not looking very old tonight, Penny, either."
"I feel a hundred, but we're all coming," she smiled. "I want to help rescue the boys, and nothing anybody can do or say is going to stop us."
The three cars moved off and Wilson, on edge with excitement, said to Lucinda, "I bet you've never acted in a picture like this! We'd never have traced this woman if Penny hadn't thought of finding you. How do you like England, Lucinda? I'll have a story from you about tonight in tomorrow's paper."
"It's real wonderful and I'll say you're not so slow, either. Why are your roads so narrow?"
Nobody could answer that question as Guildford was left behind. After ten minutes fast driving they climbed a long hill dark in the shadows of whispering pines, and then found themselves crossing a wild and lonely common. The moon was up now and the police car stopped when it reached a clump of pine trees on the right of the road. They then saw that the spinney was surrounded by a brick wall and beyond the trees there loomed the bulk of a huge house.
Wilson, followed by Mr. Morton and Mr. Sparrow, got out and went to speak to the detective. When he came back to Judith's car he brought the twins with him.
"Sorry and all that," he said. "But I've promised this detective chap that you'll all stay in the car here. These people might be dangerous. We're going up to the front door and see what happens. It's too bad for you, I know, but you must see we can't all go."
"I can," Lucinda said as she got out. "You'll want me to identify Christabel and anyway I kinda think your police can't order me about because I'm an American citizen. I'm coming. Mr. Sparrow will look after me if nobody else will,"
Wilson shrugged his shoulders and pretended that he couldn't see how furious Judith was. She was indeed so angry that she was speechless. But the twins protested loudly until Penny told them to be quiet when the detective and the police driver came up. Wilson explained about Lucinda and rather grudgingly they agreed that she should go with the men.
Penny watched them open the gates across the drive and walk in and then said, "Do as you like, Judith, but I'm not going to put up with that. I'm going to explore the back of the house and see whether there are any lights in the downstair windows. I'm going to find Jon and David. Coming, twins?"
13. Wilson's Story
"Coming, twins?" Penny whispered urgently. "Quiet as you can. What about Harry and Judith?"
Dickie and Mary jumped out first with Mackie on his lead. Then Judith recovered her sense of humour and followed with Harriet.
"Of course we're coming. Let the men get farther ahead."
Penny took the lead. The drive which led to the house was dark under the trees although the moon was high, but they were just able to distinguish the shadowy forms of the five men and Lucinda Gray about a hundred yards ahead.
"I suppose they know what they're doing?" Judith whispered. "Surely they won't go to the front door together, leaving our cars unguarded?"
"Never mind what they do," Mary said. "They'll talk an' talk, but they're not Lone Piners. We're the ones who have got to find Jon and David. Come on, Penny. Let's go to the back of the house and see what's happening there."
They raced through the trees, their feet silent on the soft carpet of pine needles, and then across a lawn by the side of the house until they came to a gate in a wall.
Macbeth strained at his lead as Dickie ran ahead when Penny pushed back the gate. Down a brick-paved path they ran and then through another door on to a terrace running along the back of the big house. Penny stopped suddenly and the others banged into her. Ten yards ahead a beam of light was shining through a gap in the curtains drawn across some french windows.
"I'll go with the twins," Penny whispered. "Look after Harry, Judith."
The three Lone Piners with Mackie crept forward together. When they reached the windows Penny gestured to the twins to keep back while she knelt to look into the room. What she saw made her forget all her fears of the last few hours. Her first feeling was of relief and a certain amount of triumph, but this was soon swamped by a surge of anger.
She was looking into a large room furnished as a library. All the lights were blazing and an electric fire glowed in the hearth. With their backs to the windows were standing a woman in a fur coat and with a beautifully groomed head of blue-rinsed hair, and an enormous man wearing a black jacket and striped trousers. Beyond these two and facing Penny as she peered through the glass, were Jon and David. Each was bound to a kitchen chair. David looked white and strained and his lips were bruised and swollen, while Jon was struggling against his bonds and shaking his head. To her horror Penny noticed that his spectacles were on the floor by his feet and that blood was trickling from the corner of his swollen right eye.
"The boys are in there," she shouted to the others as she lifted a flat piece of stone. "They're being tortured."
Then with a strength she did not know she possessed, she staggered to the doors and crashed the stone against the glass so that it shattered and fell about her feet. With another blow she smashed the lock and stormed into the room with Macbeth barking wildly at her heels and the twins just behind.
Ballinger and Louis wheeled round, but seemed to be paralysed with surprise as children, dog, and Judith in the rear rushed into the room.
"It's all right, Jon," Penny shouted. "We're here. You're safe now. The police are here, too."
Then she faced up to Louis, who loomed above her.
"As for you," she stormed, "you unspeakable fat bully. You were hitting them when they were tied up. Yes, you were, and you've knocked his specs off."
"Up the Lone Piners!" David yelled through swollen lips as Mackie flew at Louis and bit his ankle.
"Fetch the men," Penny shouted to Judith and then Mary rushed across to David and flung her arms round him, while Dickie, white with excitement, stayed just inside the room and pointed accusingly at the woman. In a sudden lull they heard his clear little voice. "You look different. You've done things to yourself. You've coloured your hair and you're not so fat as you used to be, but we remember those specs. We've found you again. You're Miss Ballinger."
That broke the spell. Louis dashed for the door and Ballinger followed him, deliberately pushing Jon's chair over as she passed. They slammed and locked the door behind them.
Penny and the twins pulled Jon and his chair upright again and while Dickie searched frantically for his pocket knife; Penny, on her knees, picked up Jon's spectacles and wiped the blood tenderly from his cut eye with her finger, because she had no handkerchief.
"Thanks, Penny," he said shakily. "That was a good entrance of yours and just in time... You're crying, you silly little girl."
"You great lout," she sobbed. "I'm not. I'm laughing at you both because you look so silly."
Then Dickie began to hack at the thin ropes which were binding their wrists and ankles to the chairs. He first freed David, who stood up and stretched and then gave Mary a hug as Wilson led a rush of grown-ups into the room.
"It's Ballinger and a big man called Louis," said David. "They went out through that door and locked us in. If you want to catch them look for a Humber Hawk DSS 101... Gosh! That looks like Dad," and he sat down suddenly.
"It is," Mr. Morton said grimly as he pushed his way through the crowd. "Are you all right, boy?"
David nodded. "All right really. They were just beginning to get mad with us. Penny got here in time. Trust her! Sorry if we've worried you, Dad. We got rather caught up in things. Hullo, Harriet! And there's Judith - and somebody very beautiful I've never seen before... Anyway, James, we've got the full story of Arcadia Street for you, and if I were you I'd search this place thoroughly."
The detective in a belted coat standing behind Mr. Morton gave the two boys a quick smile and then spoke to his driver, who hurried out on to the terrace.
"They won't get far," he said. "We've got radio in the car."
"I guess you'll want it, mister," Lucinda Gray put in.
"I'm tickled to death to watch you guys at work, but I heard a car going flat out down the drive just now. Pity we didn't leave someone round at the front."
The detective looked justifiably annoyed. He had been thinking the same thing and wasn't very proud of himself. Wilson saved him from giving Lucinda an answer.
"We've got to search the house, sergeant," he pleaded. "You know what we've got to prove. This woman who now calls herself Mrs. Sandford may have been living an innocent enough life down here, but I doubt it. These boys have found something important at Arcadia Street and they'd better tell us while we search. It will save time if we break the lock of this door, won't it? Somebody else may be in the house, so the girls and the twins had better stay here. Will you look after them, Mr. Sparrow?"
"No, Mr. Wilson," he said firmly. "I will not stay here with these young people because I am certain they will refuse to do so. If that detestable man from whom I rescued the twins some hours ago is really an accomplice of the woman who has just escaped us, I think there may be something interesting to be found in this house. It is possible that the master prints of the forged pictures come from here, but we have yet to hear Jon and David's story. I suggest we search the house together. These youngsters have done more than most of us to bring these criminals to justice."
They all laughed and Lucinda clapped as the detective attacked the lock with a heavy poker.
"We don't believe there's anyone else in the house," Jon said. "Ballinger unlocked the front door when we arrived and didn't ring a bell for servants. The big bully Louis locked us in the garage for a few minutes and then tied us up one by one. There wasn't much we could do. He's a giant"
"Never mind about that now," David put in. "They'll want to know about the penthouse," and he went on to tell them of their discoveries and of how they had been hurried off after Ballinger had received a telephone call.
"That would be the man the twins call Slinky," Mr. Sparrow said. "As soon as we had discovered his workshop and he knew that he had been recognized, he would obviously ring up and warn his employer."
Wilson nodded agreement as the detective and Mr, Morton forced open the door. Lights in the hall and on the landings were still burning. It was a big house and they examined each room thoroughly. There was no fire in the kitchen range, and not much food in the pantries. Dining-room, drawing-room, study and breakfast-room on the ground floor were all well-furnished and nothing suspicious nor unusual was to be found in them. They were clean and free of dust and wood fires were laid in two of them. In the hall the telephone wires had been wrenched out of their connection and the receiver thrown to the ground and smashed.
They searched bathrooms and bedrooms and found nothing until the men, Lucinda and Judith had explored a small bedroom and moved out so that the Lone Piners could go in. There was nothing special to see, but Macbeth stopped in front of some fitted cupboards and growled softly.
Jon and David looked at each other.
"The secret passage led from a bedroom cupboard in Arcadia Street," he whispered. "Listen," and he opened the doors of the cupboard as wide as they would go, to disclose a man's dressing-gown, two tweed jackets and a top coat on hangers. But the dog was still agitated. He whined softly, put his head on one side and then walked into the cupboard and sniffed at the floor. Then he growled and barked sharply.
"I bet there's a hidden door here somewhere. Fetch the men, Dickie," David said.
While her twin was away. Mary crawled into the cupboard and felt with her fingers a thin crack in the wall. Mackie barked again as she crawled out with her news. The detective had a torch and he asked Mary to hold it while he tried to find the catch or a slit which might well be a keyhole. He tapped softly and the sound was undoubtedly hollow.
"The dog can hear something that we can't," he whispered, and Mary said, "Of course he can! He's that sort of beautiful little dog. He's beautiful as well as clever. Aren't you going to smash down the secret door, Mr. Detective? We've done nearly everything for you so far an'------"
"That's enough, Mary," her father said and added, rather unnecessarily, "It's time you were in bed... Let's have your murderous-looking knife, Dickie, and we'll run the blade down that slit."
Dickie handed it over and squeezed into the cupboard behind Summers. Mackie barked furiously again as the detective got to work.
Suddenly there was a click and the door opened inwards. Mary swung the beam of the torch round and they saw a few steep steps of brick leading down. There was a curious smell of chemicals as a current of cold air blew into the stuffy cupboard.
"You twins get back and give me the torch," the detective ordered. "Mr. Morton and Mr. Wilson behind me, please."
Grumbling and muttering, the twins and Macbeth withdrew and their father and the journalist took their places.
"What is it, twinnies?" Lucinda pleaded. "What's there?"
"Steps all drippin' with slime leadin' to stinkin' dungeons," Dickie said and licked his lips. "We found them. It's always the same. Dad says we mustn't boast, but because we haven't met you before we think you ought to know... Somebody is making a lot of noise down in the dungeons. What's happening?"
"You can all come," Mr. Morton's voice loomed from the cupboard. "We've found her workshop."
The twins pushed ahead. There was enough light now for them to see that the steps led straight down into a sort of laboratory or workshop. The floor was of rubber and in the middle of it was a pile of smashed glass and twisted metal At the far end a casement window was wide open and Mr. Morton was standing by it.
"There's an iron fire escape outside here. Summers saw a woman half-way down and has gone after her... Look round you, Wilson, and I think you'll agree that you owe a lot to these boys and girls."
"Yes, sir, I do. And to Judith, too, who has stuck by me since the beginning believing that I was on to something. And to Mr. Sparrow, whose life we've upset, who has come on the trail with us tonight and never grumbled, and to you too, sir, who haven't been too hard on me for allowing this grand lot to run into danger... That's my big speech. Now let's see what we've found. This is going to show Mr. Sparrow how the master - or is it mistress? - forger gets to work!"
There was enough evidence in this hidden room to prove that it was the laboratory of a very skilful forger. There were cameras and lighting equipment, metal sinks and shallow trays filled with acid. In a cupboard Wilson found engraved copper plates used for printing, cans of printing ink and rubber rollers. Dickie was wildly excited when he found an enormous magnifying glass on a stand, but it was Wilson himself who discovered that part of the bench, on which Penny was sitting, lifted, and then raised up on some system of counterpoised weights a perfect little printing press.
"I've got all I want now," he said to Mr. Morton. "We'll send a photographer in the morning, but I must get back right away. What about you, Mr. Sparrow? It wouldn't be difficult to be taken in by someone as clever as the Ballinger, would it? I wonder if they've got her."
"We'll go and see," Mr. Morton said as he led the way out through the bedroom cupboard. "We must find a telephone quickly and let Mrs. Morton know that all is well and that we're on our way home."
They met Summers in the hall.
"Got her," he said. "She's in our car and we'll have her back at the station in ten minutes. A nasty woman with a nasty tongue... If you'll follow us to the station we'll find hot drinks for you, and you all can use our telephones."
At last the telephoning was over and Detective-Sergeant Summers came out to see them off. Wilson and Mr. Morton drove fast with most of their passengers asleep, and it wasn't until they reached Putney Bridge that Wilson jumped out and hailed a solitary taxi. Then he ran over to Mr. Morton.
"I must go back to the office now, sir. Judith is going to drive Lucinda, Mr. Sparrow and Harriet home, but I told her that I'd ask if you could put her up at Brownlow Square for what's left of the night. I'll ring you in the morning if I may, and come up and see you all. Thank you all. Cheerio!" and he jumped into the taxi, which rumbled off towards Fulham Road and Fleet Street.
And so they came home and were scolded and fussed over by Mrs. Morton and sent to bed just when London's earliest workers were starting out on another day. Penny waited for Judith, who was to share her bed, but they had little to say to each other when she arrived. They slept as soon as their heads touched the pillow and did not wake until Mrs. Morton brought them some tea at eleven o'clock.
"I've just told the boys," she said after she had kissed Penny, "and I'm going to tell you, too, Penny, that this is the very last time that I'm going to allow you all to get mixed up with the police and crime. I can't stand the strain. Sooner or later you will have to see Jon and David's faces, and although they won't tell me how they got like that I shall find out eventually. Good morning, Judith. That wild young man of yours has already been on the telephone twice and is now on his way here in a taxi. He says that he's bringing with him a film star called Lucinda Gray - at least that's what it sounded like, although I can hardly believe it. And Mr. Sparrow has telephoned to say that Harriet wants to see us all, so I asked her to lunch too... Now I'm going to leave you two girls in charge of the house while I go and buy pounds and pounds of cold meat and tins of soup for lunch."
Penny reached up and hugged her.
"None of our adventures would be worth while if you weren't at the end of them," she said. "We're all very sorry if we've made you anxious, but when you hear the full story I know you'll understand. Really it began because Jon and I wanted to buy you a glass paper-weight. Don't worry. We'll get up and lay the table, but please get the boys up before you go."
