Part 21 (2/2)
This rather worried him. It gave him the impression that the shadow had found out what he had been seeking and no longer needed to watch the coming and going of either himself or the Countess Perigoff.
”Olga, it looks as if we were at the end of our rope,” he said discouragedly. ”We have failed in our attempts so far. The devil watches over that girl.”
”Or G.o.d,” replied the countess gloomily. In nearly every instance their success has been due to chance. ”Somehow I'm convinced that we began wrong. We should have let Hargreave escape quietly, followed him, and made him fast when the right opportunity came. After a month or so his vigilance would have relaxed; he would have arrived at the belief that he had eluded us.”
”Indeed!” ironically. ”He wasn't vigilant all these years in which he did elude us. How about the child he never sought but guarded?
Vigilance! He never was anything else all these seventeen years. The truth is, success has developed a coa.r.s.eness in our methods. And now it is too late for finesse. We have tried every device we can think of; and there they are--the girl free, Norton unharmed, and the father as secure in his retreat as though he wore an invisible cloak. My head aches. I have ceased to be inventive.”
[Ill.u.s.tration: THEY WERE TO BE MARRIED]
”The two are in love with each other.”
”Are you sure of that?”
”I have my eyes. But I begin to wonder.”
”About what?”
”Whether or not Jones suspects me and is giving me rope to hang myself with. Not once have the police been called in and told what has really happened. They are totally at sea. And what has become of the man over the way?”
”By the Lord Harry!” exclaimed Braine, clapping his hands. ”I believe I've solved that. We shot a man coming out of Hargreave's. Since then there's been no one across the way. One and the same man!”
”But that knowledge doesn't get us anywhere.”
”No. You say they are in love?”
”Secretly. I don't believe the butler has an inkling of it. It is possible, however, that Susan has caught the trend of affairs. But, being rather romantic, she will in nowise interfere.”
Braine smoked in silence. Presently a smile twisted his lips.
”You have thought of something?” she asked.
”You might try it,” he said. ”They have accepted your friends.h.i.+p; whether with ulterior purpose remains to be learned. She has been to your apartments two or three times to tea and always got home safely.”
”No,” she said determinedly. ”Nothing shall happen here. I will not take the risk.”
”Wait till I'm through. Break up the romance in such a way that the girl will bar Norton from the house. That's what we've been aiming at; to get rid of that meddling reporter. We've tried poisons. Try your kind.”
”What do you mean?”
”Lies.”
”Ah! I understand. You want me to win him away from her. It can not be done.”
”Pshaw! You have a bag full of tricks. You can easily manage to put him into an equivocal position out of which he can not possibly squirm so far as the girl is concerned. A little melodrama, arranged for the benefit of Florence. Fall into Norton's arms at the right moment, or something like that.”
”I suppose I could. But if I failed...”
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