At The Villa Rose

"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."