"But you had isolated the house in Geneva. How could he have the
news?" exclaimed Ricardo, whose brain was whirling.
"I had isolated the house from him, in the sense that he dared not
communicate with his accomplices. That is what you have to
remember. He could not even let them know that they must not
communicate with him. So he received a telegram. It was carefully
worded. No doubt he had arranged the wording of any message with
the care which was used in all the preparations. It ran like
this"--and Hanaud took a scrap of paper from his pocket and read
out from it a copy of the telegram: "'Agent arrives Aix 3.7 to
negotiate purchase of your patent.' The telegram was handed in at
Geneva station at 12.45, five minutes after the train had left
which carried Marthe Gobin to Aix. And more, it was handed in by a
man strongly resembling Hippolyte Tace"--that we know."
"That was madness," said Ricardo.
"But what else could they do over there in Geneva? They did not
know that Harry Wethermill was suspected. Harry Wethermill had no
idea of it himself. But, even if they had known, they must take
the risk. Put yourself into their place for a moment. They had
seen my advertisement about Celie Harland in the Geneva paper.
Marthe Gobin, that busybody who was always watching her
neighbours, was no doubt watched herself. They see her leave the
house, an unusual proceeding for her with her husband ill, as her
own letter tells us. Hippolyte follows her to the station, sees
her take her ticket to Aix and mount into the train. He must guess
at once that she saw Celie Harland enter their house, that she is
travelling to Aix with the information of her whereabouts. At all
costs she must be prevented from giving that information. At all
risks, therefore, the warning telegram must be sent to Harry
Wethermill."
Ricardo recognised the force of the argument.
"If only you had heard of the telegram yesterday in time!" he
cried.
"Ah, yes!" Hanaud agreed. "But it was only sent off at a quarter
to one. It was delivered to Wethermill and a copy was sent to the
Prefecture, but the telegram was delivered first."
"When was it delivered to Wethermill?" asked Ricardo.
"At three. We had already left for the station. Wethermill was
sitting on the verandah. The telegram was brought to him there. It
was brought by a waiter in the hotel who remembers the incident
very well. Wethermill has seven minutes and the time it will take
for Marthe Gobin to drive from the station to the Majestic. What
does he do? He runs up first to your rooms, very likely not yet
knowing what he must do. He runs up to verify his telegram."