Everyone in the family did. "Sixty-five," said Hugh. "One for every year of Uncle Joseph's life."
"Would you like to count them?"
Augusta said: "They're all there."
Hugh counted them anyway. There were sixty-five. He began to feel the pleasure of victory.
The inspector took the box and passed it to another policeman. "If you would like to go with Constable Neville to the police station, he will give you an official receipt for the goods, my lady."
"Send it to the bank," she said. "May I go now?"
Hugh was uneasy. Augusta was disappointed, but not devastated. It was almost as if there was something else she was worried about, something more important to her than the snuffboxes. And where was Micky Miranda?
The inspector bowed, and Augusta went out, followed by her three heavily laden porters.
"Thank you very much, Inspector," said Hugh. "I'm only sorry you didn't catch Miranda as well."
"We will, sir. He won't get aboard the Aztec unless he's learned how to fly."
The guard from the luggage van came along the platform pushing a wheelchair. He stopped in front of Hugh and the inspector and said: "Now what am I supposed to do with this?"
"What's the problem?" the inspector said patiently.
"That woman with all the luggage and the bird on her hat."
"Lady Whitehaven, yes."
"She was with an old gent at Waterloo. Puts him in a first-class compartment and then asks me to take the bath chair in the luggage van. Glad to oblige, says L Gets off at Southampton and pretends she don't know what I'm talking about. 'You must have mistaken me for somebody else,' she goes. 'Not likely--there's only one hat like that,' says I."
Hugh said: "That's right--the cabbie said she was with a man in a wheelchair ... and there was an old fellow in the compartment with her."
"There you are," the guard said triumphantly.
The inspector suddenly lost his avuncular air and rounded on Hugh. "Did you see the old man pass through the ticket barrier?"
"No, I didn't. And I looked at every passenger. Aunt Augusta was the last." Then it hit him. "Good God! Do you think it was Micky Miranda in disguise?"
"Yes, I do. But where is he now? Could he have got off at an earlier stop?"
The guard said: "No--it's an express train, nonstop from Waterloo to Southampton."
"Then we'll search the train. He must be on it still."
But he was not.
Section 5
