Major Watkins was a very thorough man and, as soon as Wallace and his two companions had disappeared below in chase of Dorin, he set to work, and searched the whole establishment with great care. First he had the wounded man removed to hospital in the charge of two policemen and a young doctor, and then sent all the prisoners to headquarters in a motor van, which was waiting. After that, assisted by a dozen detectives, both English and Indian, he examined the premises from top to bottom. So particular was he that scarce a pin escaped his notice, and the result of his thoroughness was that all manner of secret hiding places were discovered, in which were collections of the most inflammatory documents, denouncing British rule and promising Bolshevik aid to drive the British out of India, and form an ideal republic under the aegis of the Russian Soviet.
Every scrap of literature was removed to headquarters, there to undergo further and more careful examination, and at last the Commissioner had cleared out the whole place and was left alone in the building with a subordinate.
He was in two minds whether to wait for Wallace and his companions to return, or to leave the establishment and await them at the police station. He decided on the latter course, and was taking a final look round the office, when he heard a muffled knocking coming from below. He immediately crossed to the button in the wall – taking care to stand away from the trapdoor – and pressed it. The trap fell at once and he kept his finger on the button to prevent it returning to its place.
‘Hullo!’ he called. ‘Is that you, Sir Leonard?’
‘It’s all of us, sir,’ replied Batty’s voice. ‘Sir Leonard and Major Brien is unconscious, an’ I want someone to ’elp me get ’em aloft.’
‘What has happened?’ gasped the Commissioner.
‘They almost got burnt to death, sir. Can yer get a ladder?’
With an exclamation of mingled sympathy and anger, Watkins sent his assistant to find a ladder. There was one in a storeroom close by, which was soon pushed through the opening, its weight preventing the trapdoor from springing back into place. The Major and the policeman descended to Batty’s aid, and the three between them with great care lifted the inert bodies through the opening and into the room above. When he saw the blistered features and burnt clothes of the two men, Watkins started back in horror.
‘Good God!’ he exclaimed, and ordered his subordinate to telephone for a doctor immediately, then he turned to Batty. ‘What in Heaven’s name has happened?’ he asked.
The sailor gave a graphic description of all that had taken place and Watkins listened, his anger growing stronger every moment.
‘The fiend!’ he cried, at the end of the recital. ‘The utter fiend!’
The doctor very soon put in an appearance, and the Commissioner explained what had happened. The former conducted a rapid examination.
‘They are both badly burnt,’ he said, ‘but I don’t think it is very serious. Sir Leonard is in the worse condition. We had better get them to hospital immediately. What I fear most is shock.’
‘We’ll take them to my bungalow,’ said Watkins. ‘Send for an ambulance at once, Halliday!’
The policeman hurried off, and the doctor looked gravely at the Commissioner.
‘Where is Waller?’ he asked.
‘He is responsible for this business,’ replied Watkins grimly. ‘He is a Russian spy, and it was while searching for him that Sir Leonard and Major Brien were trapped and almost burnt to death.’
‘Good God!’ exclaimed the doctor, and for some moments afterwards he repeated to himself in tones of absolute amazement, ‘Waller a spy! Good God!’
Presently the ambulance arrived. Wallace and Brien were rapidly conveyed to the Commissioner’s house, where they were at once put to bed in the same room and a nurse sent for. The doctor immediately cleansed and bandaged their burns, and then set about restoring them to consciousness. Billy was the first to regain his senses, and he stared round him in a wondering sort of way, before he remembered the events of the evening; then he shuddered and sat weakly up in bed.
‘Where is Sir Leonard Wallace?’ he demanded in a voice which seemed to him to come from a long way off.
‘Here!’ replied the doctor, endeavouring to push him back on to his pillows.
‘Is he very badly hurt?’ asked Billy in a tone of great anxiety.
‘Pretty badly, but he’ll soon be all right again.’
‘Thank God!’ muttered Billy, and sank back with a great sigh of relief.
At last Leonard came round, and he too lay for a time gazing at the ceiling in a perplexed sort of way. Then he saw the Commissioner, and tried to smile.
‘Hullo, Watkins!’ he whispered. ‘Where am I, and what has happened?’
‘You’ve been badly burnt, Sir Leonard!’
‘Oh, yes. I remember now. Is Major Brien all right?’
Yes, he is in the next bed to you.’
Wallace looked round.
‘Hullo, Billy!’ he said. ‘By Jove, you’ve got enough bandages on you!’
‘So have you! I can only see your eyes and mouth, and your right hand’s completely hidden.’
Leonard regarded his bandaged hand.
‘Why all this?’ he asked.
Watkins looked at him with a smile in which a great relief showed.
‘Your hand and face, and some parts of your body are almost raw,’ he said. ‘You must have been in the middle of the flames for a minute or two. Major Brien isn’t so badly burnt as you are.’
‘Well, that’s something!’ replied Wallace. ‘But it’s just my luck that this hand should be burnt. I wouldn’t have minded the artificial one. By the way,’ he added suddenly. ‘Where’s Batty? He saved our lives!’
Batty was sent for, and both Wallace and Brien tried to thank him, but the moment was fraught with emotion and they found it difficult to express themselves. Batty wiped something away from his eyes with the back of his sleeve.
‘I only did my dooty, sir,’ he said. ‘An’ I’d like to know wot she’d ’ave ’ad ter say to me, if I ’adn’t ’auled you out, sir.’
‘Well, Batty, neither Major Brien, nor I, nor she, will ever forget it.’
‘That’s all right, sir! Don’t make such a fuss about it! I’d like ter get ’old o’ the swine wot trapped you!’
‘That reminds me,’ said Leonard to Watkins. ‘We’ve got to get on his track again. So I’m going to get up!’
‘Excuse me,’ said the doctor, ‘but you’re going to do nothing of the sort.’
‘Oh, and who are you?’ asked Wallace.
‘I’m a doctor, and this lady is a nurse.’ He brought forward a capable-looking woman in a nurse’s uniform.
Leonard looked from one to the other.
‘I am very glad to see you, Nurse,’ he said, ‘but I assure you I don’t want any nursing.’
‘You will, for several days, Sir Leonard,’ said the doctor.
‘Nonsense, man! I’ll be all right tomorrow.’
‘I’m afraid I must forbid you to move for some time.’
‘Oh, well, we’ll see,’ said Leonard, smiling painfully. ‘I’ll stop here tonight anyhow to please you, and we’ll continue the argument in the morning. In the meantime, Watkins,’ he added to the Commissioner, ‘do everything you possibly can to get Dorin. Have the docks and stations guarded, and the whole city searched! He must be caught if possible.’
‘I have taken every precaution,’ replied the Commissioner, ‘and the whole neighbourhood of the house that was burnt is being searched at this moment.’
‘Good! I suppose there wasn’t anything left of that house, was there?’
‘I don’t know yet, Sir Leonard. I am waiting now for the report.’
Wallace gave orders to Batty to return to the aeroplane and inform Forsyth and Hallows of the events of the evening. He also asked the Commissioner to send a party of policemen to take Levinsky to the jail and keep him there for the time being. The doctor then decided that he had spoken quite enough, and insisted upon giving him a sleeping draught, which he took after protesting feebly. Billy was also made to swallow the same mixture, and presently the two of them were fast asleep.
The doctor called early the next morning, and found that the twain had just awakened. He examined them with care, and with the nurse’s assistance dressed their burns. Then he stood at the end of Wallace’s bed and smiled.
‘I have never met anybody with such iron constitutions as you two gentlemen possess,’ he said. ‘Why, the shock you received would have killed most people; and here you are, apart from the burns, very little the worse for your ordeal.’
‘I am glad to hear it, Doctor,’ said Leonard. ‘Therefore, you can have no objection to our getting up?’
‘I couldn’t think of it,’ replied the doctor. ‘You must have at least three days in bed.’
‘Nonsense! I have far too much work to do to laze about in bed. Please don’t argue, but just send Batty to me!’
The doctor protested, but in vain. Wallace had made up his mind to rise, and nothing could alter his determination; at last the medical man shrugged his shoulders and gave in.
‘You are taking a very grave risk,’ he said, ‘and must not hold me responsible if any ill effects ensue.’
‘Bless you!’ said Leonard cheerfully. ‘I shall never blame you whatever might happen. I think perhaps it would be wise if Major Brien stopped in bed, though.’
Billy snorted, and sat up.
‘Not on your life!’ he growled.
‘Well, you’d better wait a minute or two, Sir Leonard,’ said the doctor. ‘I think Major Watkins and your airman are rather anxious to see you.’
‘Send them in,’ said Wallace impatiently. ‘I have an appointment soon after nine, and I don’t want to miss it. What is the time now?
‘Twenty past eight,’ replied the doctor, and went to call Watkins and Forsyth.
The two entered the room with very serious countenances. Watkins expressed his delight at hearing that Wallace and Brien were so much better, and Forsyth started to make sympathetic enquiries, but Leonard interrupted him.
‘I can see that both of you have something unpleasant to report, from the look on your faces,’ he said. ‘What is it?’
Forsyth looked at the Commissioner, who nodded, and the airman turned to Leonard.
‘I am sorry to have to tell you, Sir Leonard,’ he said, ‘that your prisoner has escaped from the plane!’
‘What!’ exclaimed Billy, and Wallace swore.
‘You remember, of course, that you left Woodhouse and Green to look after him?’ went on Forsyth, and his two listeners nodded. ‘Hallows and I stopped there until all the petrol and oil, which Major Watkins had ordered, was aboard, and then went into Karachi. We returned just before midnight and found Green lying seriously wounded outside the saloon, while Woodhouse was inside unconscious from a blow on the back of the head. He came here with me so that you could question him, but he knows very little.’
‘Bring him in!’ commanded Wallace tersely, and as Forsyth left the room, he turned to Major Watkins, ‘Why wasn’t I informed of this before?’ he demanded.
‘You were asleep, Sir Leonard, and the doctor gave orders that you were not to be disturbed.’
‘Oh, damn the doctor!’ exclaimed the other, then smiled. ‘That’s a bit unreasonable,’ he added, ‘but think of the time that has been lost!’
Woodhouse followed Forsyth into the room. His head was swathed in bandages and he looked rather pale.
‘Well, Woodhouse,’ began Leonard, ‘tell me what happened!’
‘There isn’t very much to tell, sir,’ replied the mechanic. ‘Me and Green had been sitting with the prisoner, and having a quiet hand of nap together, and Green just went outside to fetch something. I was sitting with my back to the door, and presently I heard footsteps. I didn’t look round, because I thought it was Green coming back; the next moment something hit me on the back of the head, and that’s all I know, sir.’
‘H’m! You didn’t hear the sound of a scuffle outside before you were attacked?’
‘No, sir.’
‘How was Green injured?’ enquired Leonard, turning to Forsyth.
‘Stabbed in the back, sir.’
‘Then he doesn’t know anything about his assailant either. Is he very badly hurt?’
‘Pretty severely,’ replied Watkins, ‘but he’ll recover all right.’
‘Thank God for that,’ said Leonard fervently. ‘I suppose he has been taken to hospital?’
Forsyth nodded.
‘Batty arrived soon after we did,’ he said, ‘and I sent him to fetch an ambulance. I saw Green half an hour ago. He has recovered consciousness, but has no idea who stabbed him.’
Wallace lapsed into a brown study for a moment or two.
‘All right, Woodhouse,’ he said, at length. ‘You had better go and rest.’
The mechanic walked to the door, then turned.
‘I’m sorry, sir—’ he began.
‘Good Lord! You weren’t to blame,’ said Leonard. ‘I’m very sorry that you had such an unpleasant mishap.’
Woodhouse looked relieved and went out.
‘Of course it was Dorin,’ said Leonard. ‘By Jove he had a fairly successful night last night. And I blame myself,’ he added. ‘If I hadn’t mentioned to him that Levinsky was a prisoner, we would still have had the latter. What a fool I am!’
‘Don’t be an ass,’ said Billy disrespectfully. ‘How could you know that Dorin was going to escape?’
‘One should always be prepared for eventualities,’ replied his chief. ‘Anyhow we’ve got to make a big effort to retake these two, and in the meantime,’ he turned to Watkins, ‘you had better send a few more men to watch for Ata Ullah’s arrival at the station, in case he is spirited away somehow.’
‘I’ve already taken precautions, Sir Leonard,’ replied the Commissioner. ‘As soon as I heard what had happened, I gave orders that the station, and all approaches leading to it, should be guarded by squads of plain clothes men, with a full description of this fellow. Further, fearing that perhaps Dorin and Levinsky would get away by car and intercept him at Jungshahi or Pipri, I telephoned to both those places and ordered them to be closely watched.’
Leonard held out his bandaged hand, which Watkins touched very gingerly.
‘Thanks, Major,’ he said. ‘No man could do more!’ Then he added briskly, ‘Send Batty in to me – I must dress and get along to Waller and Redmond’s premises to receive Mr Ata Ullah – if he comes!’
‘You think there might still be a doubt of his arrival?’ queried Brien.
‘There is always a doubt when trying to checkmate Levinsky and Dorin, Bill. I have staked a lot on this last throw, and if we don’t get those plans this morning, we shall be very nearly – though not quite – beaten.’
Watkins and Forsyth left the room, and soon afterwards Batty entered. He was all solicitude, and he helped Wallace and Brien to dress with the tender care of a young mother fussing over her first child.
When they were dressed the nurse looked in.
‘I’m glad I haven’t many patients like you two gentlemen,’ she said. ‘I should go grey in a week.’
‘Sorry, Nurse,’ said Leonard. ‘I’d very much like to be nursed by you for a month, but the calls of duty have decided otherwise.’
She smiled and proceeded to give them advice, which was presently augmented by the doctor.
As they stood waiting for the arrival of the car which was to take them to their destination, the two regarded each other.
‘We do look a pretty pair!’ said Billy. ‘I must say that with those bandages round your head and face and on your arm, you have a most interesting appearance.’
‘I’ve certainly had the most complete singeing I’ve ever had in my life, and I am wondering what colour your moustache will be when it grows again that is, if it ever does.’
Billy fingered his upper lip lovingly.
‘I feel a bit naked there now,’ he admitted.
Batty came in to announce that the car was waiting, and offered the assistance of his arms, but they both refused and made their way to the door without support. They found themselves very shaky and weak, however, and once Wallace would have stumbled, had not the sailor caught him and thenceforth insisted on helping his employer to the car.
They were rapidly driven to the Bunda Road. Curious heads in the windows of neighbouring shops and houses watched them alight with Major Watkins and enter the open door of the establishment which had flourished under the name of Waller and Redmond. In spite of the extreme reticence of the police, knowledge of the raid had leaked out, and once or twice a crowd started to collect and stare open-mouthed at the building, only to be moved on by the plain-clothes policemen under orders from the Commissioner, who took every precaution to prevent Ata Ullah scenting danger and making his escape.
Once inside the office Leonard sank into a chair and smiled wanly at the Commissioner.
‘It is extraordinary how quickly one’s strength departs,’ he said.
‘I am amazed that you have any left at all, Sir Leonard,’ replied the Commissioner. ‘You both must be made of iron.’
‘Good Heavens!’ exclaimed Billy suddenly, and the other two stared at him in surprise. ‘Didn’t you tell me,’ he went on excitedly to Wallace, ‘that you had put the photographic copies of those plans in one of your suitcases?’
‘Then, man alive, don’t you realise that they may have been retaken by Levinsky and Dorin last night!’
‘They couldn’t have been.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because I took the precaution of taking them out of the case, and pinning them to the inside of my waistcoat before I left the aeroplane. I also pinned them inside this suit while I was being dressed this morning, which shows that your powers of observation are not yet fully developed, my son.’
‘Phew!’ said Billy. ‘For a moment I felt hot and cold all over.’
‘Please don’t talk about being hot,’ complained Leonard. ‘It takes my mind back to the incidents of last night; and why, oh why, Bill, will you persist in regarding me as an infant in arms?’
Brien grinned.
‘For a moment, I admit,’ he said, ‘that I thought the infallible Sir Leonard Wallace had blundered.’
‘Infallible be hanged. If I were I shouldn’t be sitting here trembling in my shoes in case Ata Ullah fails to turn up.’
‘You don’t look as though you were worried!’ scoffed Billy.
‘Nevertheless I am!’
Whatever Wallace’s real feelings were, it could be easily seen as time went on that his companions were agitated. Half past nine came, and still there was no sign of the seditionist. In the outer office waited two native policemen, dressed as clerks, with instructions to send Ata Ullah in as soon as he arrived. Although they knew nothing of the great issues hanging on the arrival of the Indian, they apparently found the waiting very tedious, for the three men in the inner office could hear one of them pacing up and down as though he were on beat. The monotonous sound presently got on Billy’s nerves.
‘I wish that fellow would keep still,’ he growled.
‘Hullo, Bill, feeling jumpy?’ asked Leonard.
‘We’re not all cold-blooded beings like you,’ retorted Brien.
‘I think I’ll ring up the station and find out if the train is delayed,’ said the Commissioner, and immediately did so.
He was told that it had arrived ten minutes before, and he was imparting the information to his companions, when there was the sound of voices outside and then came a knock on the door.
‘Come in!’ sang out the three, almost in one breath, and a policeman looked in.
‘Ata Ullah, Excellency!’ he announced.
A sigh escaped from Leonard, and Billy murmured, ‘Thank the Lord!’
‘Show him in!’ said the Commissioner; and the officer withdrew.
There was a second’s pause, after which the door opened again. A small elderly man, with a greying moustache and wrinkled face, clothed in the height of Indian fashion, and wearing a spotless white turban, stepped in. He gazed in astonishment at the two bandaged men, and from them to the Commisioner.
‘Which of you three gentlemen is Mr Waller?’ he enquired in perfect English.
‘None of us,’ replied Major Watkins. ‘I am the Deputy Commissioner of Police for Karachi and district, and this gentleman’ – he indicated Wallace – ‘is Sir Leonard Wallace, the Chief of the Intelligence Department of Great Britain!’
A great gasp of fear burst from the trapped man. He looked wildly from one to the other, and his hand went mechanically to a certain part of his coat.
‘Yes, Mr Ata Ullah,’ said Leonard. ‘We want those plans. But sit down, and let us talk!’
With the perspiration breaking out in beads on his forehead, the Indian sank slowly into a chair.
‘I am at your mercy, gentlemen,’ he murmured.