Part 10 (2/2)
”Yes, that is all at present The danger co”
His report at that tiuards at or near the gateway At night a patrol arden and remain within He could not say whether there was another one in the house It was likely
Madaarde had driven to the villa She had been allowed to enter, and came out with a basket of flowers As no one went in with her, it was pretty sure that they trusted some one within to watch her
Merton said: ”And now, Alphonse, have you any plan, any et away safe without violent methods?”
”If there was no one within”
”But we do not know, and that we must risk”
”It would be necessary,” said Alphonse, ”to get the police away froate for a time, and, if I am not mistaken, their orders will be capture, dead or alive They believe your papers are still hidden in that house and that an effort may be made to secure them You observe, monsieur, that all this care would never be taken in an ordinary case
If monsieur proposes to enter the house and take away certain papers, the guard hed Merton, ”circumstances--”
”Monsieur does not desire me to enter the house”
I said promptly that we did not Alphonse seemed relieved, and Merton went on to state with care his own plan Alphonse listened with the joy of an expert, adding suggestions and twice eht, to wait for a storht, but already it was overclouded
Alphonse went away to see his ned to him in an adventure to which I looked forith keen interest and with small satisfaction
Not so Merton When the valet left us, the captain said: ”We are utterly in the hands of that htfully
”If he knew,” said Merton, ”he ht--”
”No That he did not want to knohat these papers are was an expression of his own doubt concerning the extent to which he ht trust himself I think we must trust him”
”Yes,” returned the captain ”Whether or not we have been wise to use him, I rather doubted, but now I do not The lie enough It is hard to guess beforehand what he will do and what he will not However, we are in for it You have a revolver?”
”No”
”I will lend you lad to borrow it, but I may say that I took care, before we set out, to see that the barrels were not loaded I ht use it to threaten, but was resolute not to fire on any one, even if not to do so involved failure of our purpose I, too, had mynight there was such a storht o'clock we drove to a little restaurant in the Bois de Boulogne, dined quietly, and about nine set out on foot to walk to the villa There was a brief lull in the storain heavily, and as, of course, we took no u sure that ere not folloe approached the garden cautiously through the wood, the rain falling in torrents At the edge of the forest, near a well known fountain, beyond the house, we met by appointment my man, Alphonse He was dressed as an old woether we h the wood and shrubbery until ere opposite the side of the garden and about a hundred feet fro an avenue, the as broken ateway The wind bleard us, and we could hear now and then the sound of voices
Alphonse said: ”Two; there are two at the gate”
”Hush,” said I, as athe narroay between us and the garden wall
”Wait, ain” In some ten minutes he reappeared, as before
”Now,” said Merton, and in a pour of wildly driven rain Alphonse disappeared He found his way through the wood and in to the ate turned to the left and passed around the farther side of the grounds Then he walked up to the gate