'Ambrose! Ambrose! Is that you? Speak quickly!'
'I am here, Suzanne,' he cried. 'Where are you?'
Suddenly he seemed to hear turmoil and confusion, a man's voice, a woman's shriek.
Then there was silence. The connection had been broken. Lavendale rang up furiously. At last he got the exchange. The young man who answered his inquiry could tell him nothing. He rang through to the inquiry office with little better result. They would make inquiries and let him know from whence the call came. They believed that it was from a call office. He could gain no further information. He set down the instrument at last in despair and walked up and down the room. She was in trouble, danger. 'Hook--?' 'Hook--?' What was there familiar to him in the commencement of that word? He repeated it feverishly. Then he remembered--Hookam Court--Anthony Silburn, whom he had met that afternoon at the Embassy. It was hard to discover any connection, however. He drove back to the Milan Court and found Anne.
'Is there any news, monsieur?' she asked anxiously.
'None at present,' Lavendale replied. 'I cannot see Major Elwell for another half-hour. Tell me, have you ever heard your mistress mention any place of which the first syllable is "Hook"?'
'"Ook,"' Anne repeated dubiously. 'No, monsieur!'
'Hookam Court,' Lavendale went on, 'Anthony Silburn--Norfolk--none of that is familiar?'
He kept the secret of the telephone message to himself and made his way round once more to Whitehall. Major Elwell was seated in his office and received him at once. There was nothing unusual about the place except a large array of telephones. Lavendale told his story quickly. The Major listened without comment.
'Well?' Lavendale asked eagerly, when he had finished.
Major Elwell was occupied in drawing small diagrams with his pencil on the edge of the blotting-paper.
'We must see what can be done,' he remarked at last. 'Hook'--that is absolutely all you heard?'
'And you have a friend who lives at Hookam Court in Norfolk--Mr. Anthony Silburn?' he said meditatively. 'A very remarkable man, Silburn--likely to be President some day, they tell me.'
'Who cares about that!' Lavendale exclaimed, a little curtly. 'What can we do, Major Elwell? I dare say you know as much as I do, and more. Miss de Freyne has been very successful during the last few months, and there is no doubt they'd give anything they could to get hold of her on the other side. But in England--surely there can't be any organization over here strong enough for actual mischief!'