know a man named Lenart Gronvold?" asked the Premier.
Clinton Scott started visibly.
"Do you mean to say he is in it?" he gasped in utter astonishment.
It was the Premier's turn to be surprised.
"Why--who is he?" he asked. "Professor Rudford had never even heard hisname and laughed when I suggested that he could have had anything to dowith it."
"He won't laugh when he gets some real idea of Gronvold's ability," saidScott bitterly. "The man is one of the mysteries of the world ofcrime," he went on. "Exactly who he is we don't know--I mean we knowlittle about his life. But we believe he is Norwegian born, though hehas strong Russian characteristics. We know he studied at Leipzig.Tutors who knew him well speak with the utmost admiration of his amazingbrain power as a student and the daring of his conceptions. But forsome reason he never did well in examinations and attracted no attentionwhatever outside a very limited circle. Personally, I believe that forsome strange reason he deliberately elected not to call attention tohimself, for there is not the slightest doubt that he could with easehave captured every honour the University had to bestow. After leavingLeipzig he disappeared for some years. I don't know how he spent them.But I do know that he is a chemist of amazing ability. He has,moreover, been mixed up with a number of puzzling international crimes,though we have never been able to bring any of them home to him. Do youremember the big bank robbery at Liverpool three years ago?"
The Premier nodded.
"You mean," he said, "when the bank vaults were blown open with dynamiteand half a million in gold stolen?"
"That's the case," said Scott. "Only it wasn't dynamite, there was noexplosion. The thick steel and stone walls of the vaulted safe had beenmelted through as if they had been butter. The story of an explosionwas deliberately given out to deceive the thieves. But the fact is thatsome process was used of which we have no knowledge whatever."
And he paused, then went on:
"Now I am pretty sure Gronvold was in that. I was called in beforeanything had been touched. And in one corner I picked up a scrap ofpaper bearing some queer formulae of which I could make nothing. It hadevidently been dropped by accident. And it bore Gronvold's name.Moreover, as I ascertained by a visit to Leipzig, where I saw some ofthe old University registers, it was in his handwriting. But where heis, how he got into England, how the burglary was effected and how hegot away with such an enormous weight of gold we never could make out.If he is really in this new discovery we are face to face with aterrible problem. The man is absolutely without scruple, and for threeyears he has had the use of half a million of money for his experiments.He may have done anything in that time."
"But how did you know of him?" asked the Premier.
"It's a queer story," replied the other. "Simmons, one of our men inChristiansand came across, quite by accident, a drunken Norwegian sailorwho told a strange story of the blowing up of a mountain by a tinycartridge placed at the bottom of an old mine shaft. He actuallymentioned Gronvold's name, and claimed to have been one of hisassistants. When he became sober he was evidently terribly alarmed athaving talked, and denied the whole story. The same day he disappeared,and Simmons has been unable to trace him."
He went on after a pause:
"Now the blowing up of a mountain is a fact. A hill nearly a thousandfeet high in a wild lonely district north-east of Tonstad has absolutelydisappeared--levelled out. To have done the work by ordinary meanswould have meant years of labour and would have cost a fortune. Therecan be no doubt that some entirely new force has been employed.Officially the occurrence is attributed to a landslide; actually it isand can be nothing of the kind. Now this, coupled with what theNorwegian sailor said, suggests that we ought to look into the matter.Whether the Norwegian Government knows anything about it I do not know,and the matter would be of such importance from the international pointof view that we cannot make direct inquiries."
"Will you take it in hand?" asked the Premier. "Whom will you get tohelp you? I am afraid the ordinary men would be of very little use."
"I think I will run over to Paris and see Regnier," replied Scott. "Hehas a fellow named Manton who will certainly be useful. He was in ourflying corps and was invalided out owing to wounds. He has done somewonderful work and has an entirely new type of aeroplane which heinvented and which, by the way, our people would have nothing to dowith. Regnier swears by him. He works always with a French girl namedYvette Pasquet, who did some splendid intelligence work during the war,and her brother Jules. They will have nothing to do with anyone elsewhen they are on a case, and they have had some amazing results."
Crossing to Paris by the afternoon air express Scott the same eveningwas warmly greeted by Regnier. He rapidly explained his visit. Regnierlooked grave.
"I have heard of the man," he said, "but have never seen him, I don'tthink in a case like this you can do better than Manton. He is verywell up in all these scientific things; they seem to be a perfect crazewith him."
An hour later, Regnier, Scott, Dick Manton, Yvette, and Jules wereclosely discussing the problem in Manton's rooms.
"We have got to find that sailor," was Dick's verdict, "and luck isgoing to have a good deal to do with it. I suppose Simmons is on thelook out for him?"
"Yes," replied Scott, "I wired him at once."
"Do you think Gronvold and the sailor have quarrelled?" put in Yvette.
"I think not," was Scott's reply. "If they had there seems no reasonfor the man's alarm. I think he calculated on going back to him. Thatwas Simmons' view, too."
Dick, who had been carefully studying a map, looked up.
"Just look here," he said, "you could hide an army in this place."
The map was in contour and gave a vivid impression of the wild anddesolate country, a broken mass of hills and lakes, stretching north andeast from Tonstad.
"Suppose Gronvold is there," said Dick, "he could hide anything hewanted to. I don't think he would have travelled far from its base toblow up the hill--that was probably experimental. My idea is that hehas established his laboratory somewhere in the hills about there.There is no population and little or no traffic through the district.He must send to one of the towns for supplies, and Christiansand is themost likely. I should guess that the sailor had come there for thatpurpose and may come again."
"He did not leave the town by boat," declared Scott. "Simmons made themost careful inquiries on all the boats in the harbour and no one of hisdescription was seen."
Three tourists a week later were lodged in a comfortable hotel in theDronningens Gade, one of the principal streets in the busy port ofChristiansand. They were Yvette, Jules, and Scott. Dick had flown theMohawk direct to the wild district north-east of Tonstad, and with thehelp of a light tent had pitched a camp in a little wood a couple ofmiles from the southern edge of the blown-up hill. He had taken painsin the selection of a suitable place and his camp and the Mohawk were soadmirably hidden that they were safe from discovery, unless some oneactually walked right up to them, a contingency which in that roadless,unpopulated country was extremely unlikely. But though hidden himselfhe commanded a wide view.
For two days Dick devoted himself to a thorough examination of thesurrounding country, quartering it thoroughly either on foot or in theMohawk. He could however see nothing in the least suspicious.
Then came a surprise.
His only method of receiving news from the others was to "listen in" onthe wireless telegraph set with which the Mohawk was fitted for messageswhich, directed to an address in England, were handed to theChristiansand radio station for dispatch, but were really intended forhim. These messages were handed in at eight o'clock precisely and Dickusually got them within half an hour.
On the third day of his watch came the message:
"Sailor located. Travelling north with pack mules. We follow. Osterluis road."
The man, as he was to learn later, had been spotted by Yvette inChristiansand. She had se
en him leave a small cafe much frequented bysailors, and had been struck by his likeness to the description given bySimmons. She had followed him for some time while he made a variety ofpurchases at numerous shops, and had been struck by the fact that a meresailor should evidently have such a large sum of money at his disposal.Luckily she had encountered Simmons, who at once recognised the man andhad promptly disappeared to avoid arousing his suspicions.
Yvette was able to learn that all the man's purchases were beingdelivered to a small inn on the outskirts of the town, and a fewinquiries showed that he had four mules stationed there.
The matter began now to clear up. They were sure of the man; at leasthe could