Call Mr. Fortune | Page 4

His European reputation as a surgeon has been won by knowing his own mind.
Reggie met him at the door and took him upstairs before that puzzling pair, the Archduke and the Archduchess, had a sight of him. "Glad you could come, sir. It's an odd case."
"Every case is odd," said Sir Lawson Hunter.
"He was knocked down by a car. The -- "
"If he was, I can find it out for myself. Damme, Fortune, don't bias me. Most unprofessional. That's the worst of general practice. You fellows must always be saying something."
Reggie held his peace. He knew Sir Lawson's little ways, having been his house surgeon. The faithful Holt was turned out of the room. Sir Lawson Hunter went over the senseless body with his usual speed and washed his hands.
"Splendid animal," he remarked. "They run to that, these Pragas. I remember his uncle's abdominal muscles. Heroic. Well. He was walking. A big car driven fast hit him from behind on the right side, fractured two ribs, and knocked him down. Impact of his head on the road has caused a serious concussion. That car should have stopped."
Reggie smiled. "Oh, one of the odd things is that it didn't."
"There's a damned lot of road hogs about, my boy." said Sir Lawson heartily. He was himself fond of high speed. "Well. They sent out, I suppose. Found him lying on his face unconscious."
"No, sir."
"What?" Sir Lawson jumped. "He was lying on his back." "Oh, that's absurd."
"Yes, sir. But I've seen his valet who found him."
"These fellows have no observation," Sir Lawson grunted, but there was some animation in his boiled eye. "Damme, Fortune, he ought to have been on his face."
"Yes, sir."
"Miracles don't happen."
"No, sir."
"Now these abrasions on the legs. As if the car had been driven at him again while he lay. A queer thing. Or have there been two cars at him? "
"And there is this too, sir." Reggie held out the sliver of steel.
" I saw the puncture. I was coming to that. Humph! Whoever put this in meant business."
"And didn't know his job. It slipped along the bone and missed everything."
Sir Lawson turned the thing over. "A woman's hatpin. About half a woman's hatpin."
"Fresh fracture. Broke as it was pushed in."
"They're a wild lot," said Sir Lawson, and smiled. "You have no nerves, Fortune?"
"I believe not, sir."
"This ought to be the making of you. You want shaking up. You must stay in the house. By the way, who's in the house?"
"The Archduchess, of course -- "
"Ianthe. Yes. Aunt's in a mad-house. Ianthe. Yes. Crazy on motoring. Drives her own car. And have you see Ianthe - since?" Sir Lawson nodded at the body on the bed.
"She is very excited."
"Is she really?" Sir Lawson laughed. "Is she, though? How surprising!''
"She is surprising, sir."
"What? What? Be careful, my boy. Handsome creature, isn't she?"
"Yes, sir." Reggie declined to be amused. "The Archduke Leopold is staying with them."
"Leopold. He's the dandy entomologist. He's tame enough. Well, he's the head of the house after this fellow. Better tell him." He blinked at Reggie. "You have nurses you can trust? Well, we'll stay in the room till one comes, my boy. Our friend of the hatpin won't miss a chance. These Royal families they're a criss-cross of criminal tendencies. Hohenzollerns, Hapsburgs, Pragas, Wittelsbachs - look at the heredity."
"There was another running-down case here tonight. The man was killed - fractured skull. He was left on the road too. And another queer thing - he was much the same build as the Archduke Maurice."
"Good Gad!" Sir Lawson was startled out of his omniscient manner, an event unknown in Reggie's experience. "There's something devilish in it. Fortune. One murder-the wrong man dead - and then try again at once the same way. Imagine the creature looking at that poor dead wretch and jumping on the car again to drive it on at the other man. Diabolical! Diabolical!"
"I don't think I have much imagination, sir," said Reggie, who was not impressed by ineffective emotion.
There was a gentle tap at the door, a nurse came and was given her instructions, and the two men went down to the Archduke Leopold.
He had changed his clothes. He was now in a claret-coloured velvet which did violence to his complexion and his pale beard. He sat in the smoking-room with a book on the entomology of Java and a glass of eau sucree. He smiled at them and waved them to chairs.
" I have to tell you, sir, that your brother lies in grave danger," said Sir Lawson.
Reggie looked at him sideways.
"Ah, the concussion! It is serious, then? I am deeply distressed."
"The concussion is most serious. There's another matter. In your brother's chest above the heart, at which it must have been aimed, we have found-this."
" Mon Dieu! It is a