Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns Read Online Free PDF

spectator,” said Mr Reeder. “It happened very near to my office, and I was looking out of the window at that moment. I fear I waste a great deal of time looking out of the window, but I find the traffic of Whitehall intensely interesting. A car got out of control and swerved onto the pavement. It was going beyond the ordinary speed limit, and the young lady would, I think, have been severely injured if you had not lifted her aside just before the car crashed into the lamp-post. As it was, she had a very narrow escape. I applauded you, but silently, because the rules of the office call for quiet. But I still think the lamp-post had almost as much to do with it–”
    “Of course it had, but she might have been hurt. Did you see her?” asked Larry eagerly. “She’s lovely! God, how lovely!”
    Mr Reeder thought she was interesting, and said so. Larry scoffed.
    “Interesting! She’s marvellous! She has the face and figure of an angel – and don’t tell me you’ve never met an angel – and she has a voice like custard. I was so knocked off my feet by her that she thought I was hurt.”
    Mr Reeder nodded.
    “I saw her. In fact, I – er – looked rather closely at her. I keep a small pair of field glasses on my desk, and I’m afraid I was rather inquisitive. Who is she?”
    Larry shook his head.
    “I don’t know. I didn’t ask her her name, naturally: she was rather upset by what had happened, and she hurried off. I saw her get into a Rolls-Royce that was evidently waiting for her–”
    “Yes,” said Mr Reeder. “I saw the Rolls. It is a pity.”
    “It is a pity. If I’d had any sense I’d have told her my name. After all, the least she can do is to write and thank her brave preserver.”
    “She may yet – no, no, I wasn’t thinking of that.”
    The housekeeper came in and laid the table, and during the operation Mr Reeder was silent. When she had gone: “I wasn’t thinking of that,” he went on, as though there had been no interruption of his thoughts. “I was thinking that if you had been properly introduced you might have asked her why such a strong safe was ordered.”
    Larry looked at him blankly.
    “Strong safe? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    Mr Reeder smiled. It pleased him to mystify this clever young man.
    “The lady’s name was Miss Lane Leonard,” he said.
    Larry frowned.
    “Do you know her?”
    “I have never seen her before in my life.”
    “Then how the devil do you know she was Miss Lane Leonard? Have you seen her picture–?”
    Mr Reeder shook his head.
    “I’ve never seen a picture of her. I have neither seen her since nor before; I have received no information from any person immediately concerning her identity.”
    “Then how the devil do you know?” asked the astonished Larry.
    Mr Reeder chuckled.
    “A person who has a car number has also a name. I was interested to discover who she was, ’phoned across to Scotland Yard, and they supplied me with the name that is attached to that particular car number. Miss Lane Leonard, 409 Berkeley Square, and Sevenways Castle, Sevenways, Kent. 409 Berkeley Square, by the way, is an expensive block of residential flats, so that if you feel that she would be happier for knowing the name of her – um – brave deliverer – I think that was the phrase – you might drop her a line and explain, with whatever modesty you can command, just how much she owes to you.”
    Larry was very thoughtful.
    “That’s queer. Do you remember we were talking about the Lane Leonards’ strongroom only a few weeks ago, and wondering why such an expensive contraption had been ordered. A lady worth a couple of millions.”
    “I’m sorry,” Mr Reeder smiled. “I’ve spoilt your romance. You would have preferred that she were poor – um – but honest. That her father, or preferably her mother, was in the grip of a cruel – um – usurer, and that you might have rescued her once more with the magnificent capital which you have