And the chloroform?
At that moment Ravengar had meant that the Hugo building should have
been a funeral pyre--a spectacle to petrify the Metropolis. And it
seemed to Hugo that if Ravengar was mad, as he must be, he could only
have designed the spectacle as something final, as at once a last
revenge and an accompaniment to the supreme sacrifice of Camilla.
'We must get into that house immediately,' said Hugo, when he had
finished his own narrative. 'The question is how?'
'I've got a card of Inspector Wilbraham's, of the Yard, in my pocket,'
Albert suggested. 'We might use that, and make out that this purchase of
chloroform under a false name had got to be explained to the Yard
instantly.'
Albert had recently become rather intimate with Scotland Yard. Inspector
Wilbraham had even called on him in reference to Bentley's death and the
disappearance of Brown; and Albert was duly proud.
'We will try that,' said Hugo. 'Have you any handcuffs?'
'No, sir.'
'Go and obtain a couple of pairs. You can be back in twenty minutes.
Bring also my revolver.'
Hugo and Simon were left alone. Hugo spoke no word.
'I'll put the room to rights, sir,' said Simon, after a pause. He could
bear the inaction no longer.
Hugo nodded absently, and Simon collected the ruins of the vile repast
which his master had consumed, and put them outside on a tray on the
landing.
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