Free Microbes of Power (Wallace of the Secret Service Series) by Alexander Wilson

might have been and destroying it or pocketing it. He sent Brien to the Colonial Office to see Wright and obtain from him a description of the fugitives, afterwards to go to Scotland Yard and put the police on track. He knew very well that the woman would not supply him with an authentic sketch of Baltazzi and Padakis. As soon as his deputy had left the house, he ascended the stairs and himself inspected the room with the battered door. There was no sign of any burnt paper or any other indication that documents had been destroyed. He had not expected to find anything, for Maddison was the most expert searcher in the Secret Service. It was not likely that he would have overlooked anything.However, Sir Leonard was human enough to feel more satisfied when he had thus assured himself.
    He returned to the little sitting room, and turned his attention to the Greek woman. She regarded him with an intense, virulent gaze which rather amused him. At first she refused point-blank to speak to him at all, shaking her head obstinately to everything he said. Then suddenly she let forth a flood of invective which he strove to stop, if only for the sake of the child. It must be said to her credit that, when he reminded her of the presence of the little boy, she promptly ceased. Patiently, and with that firm, inexorable power of interrogation which seldom failed to bear satisfactory results, he questioned her, but she proved adamantine. She quailed certainly under the piercing, steely regard of his grey eyes, but resisted the inquisition in a manner that evoked a certain amount of admiration from Maddison, who had seen strong men wilt under a relentless cross-examination conducted by his chief. Occasionally she answered questions which appeared to have no particular significance, the replies to which she felt could not endanger the people for whom she had been working; once he adroitly steered her into a verbal cul-de-sac, but she realised her danger just in time, thereafter maintaining a sullen, obstinate silence. At length he gave it up.
    ‘I will speak to you again,’ he warned her. ‘Perhaps in the meantime you will consider the position. It may pay you better to reflect that a lot of time and inconvenience to yourself will be saved, if you decide to answer.’
    At that moment Foster entered the room to announce that three boys and a girl, the other children of the house, had returned from school. Wallace walked out into the passage and, smiling cheerfully at the four frightened faces, bade the little ones – the eldest wasnot more than thirteen – go into the kitchen, assuring them that their mother would soon be with them. They went obediently, accompanied by Foster. Sir Leonard returned to the sitting room.
    ‘I will not detain you any longer,’ he remarked to Mrs Wright, ‘but I will return. In the meantime you may as well know that this house will be watched. I am warning you lest you think you can communicate with your friends and employers without the fact being known to us.’
    He turned away to speak to Maddison. It was then that the fury she had been endeavouring to suppress overcame her. On the table by her side lay a long, thin paper knife fashioned like a stiletto. Snatching it up, she sprang to her feet and threw herself forward with a cry, her intention being to plunge the keen blade into the unprotected back of the Englishman. Her little son, however, who had been watching everything so intently, acted with surprising promptitude.
    ‘Mummy!’ he screamed and, springing forward, caught her wrist.
    In a moment the woman, now violently hysterical, was disarmed, and thrust back into her chair. She gathered her small son into her arms, as though grateful to him for having prevented her from committing the crime she had contemplated. Sir Leonard stood watching them for a few moments.
    ‘Madam,’ he observed quietly, ‘I hope you will always be grateful to the little chap. He has saved you possibly from the