"I hear you do quite a lot of running about," he said carelessly, as he began to arrange the papers on his table. "By the way, how is Miss White?"
Stafford flushed.
"She was very well when I saw her last night," he said stiffly; "she is leaving the stage."
"And her father?"
Stafford was silent for a second.
"He left his home a week before the case came into court and has not been seen since," he said.
The chief nodded.
"Whilst White is away and until he turns up I should keep a watchful eye on his daughter," he said.
"What do you mean, sir?" asked Stafford.
"I"m just making a suggestion," said the other. "Think it over."
Stafford thought it over on his way to meet the girl, who was waiting for him on a sunny seat in Temple Gardens, for the day was fine and even warm, and, two hours before luncheon, the place was comparatively empty of people.
She saw the trouble in his face and rose to meet him, and for a moment forgot her own distress of mind, her doubts and fears. Evidently she knew the reason for his attendance at Scotland Yard, and something of the interview which he had had.
"I offered my resignation," he replied, in answer to her unspoken question, "and Sir Stanley refused it."
"I think he was just," she said. "Why, it would be simply monstrous if your career were spoilt through no fault of your own."
He laughed.
"Don"t let us talk about me," he said. "What have you done?"
"I"ve cancelled all my contracts; I have other work to do."
"How are----" He hesitated, but she knew just what he meant, and patted his arm gratefully.
"Thank you, I have all the money I want," she said. "Father left me quite a respectable balance. I am closing the house at Horsham and storing the furniture, and shall keep just sufficient to fill a little flat I have taken in Bloomsbury."
"But what are you going to do?" he asked curiously.
She shook her head.
"Oh, there are lots of things that a girl can do," she said vaguely, "besides going on the stage."
"But isn"t it a sacrifice? Didn"t you love your work?"
She hesitated.
"I thought I did at first," she said. "You see, I was always a very good mimic. When I was quite a little girl I could imitate the colonel.
Listen!"
Suddenly to his amazement he heard the drawling growl of Dan Boundary.
She laughed with glee at his amazement, but the smile vanished and she sighed.
"I want you to tell me one thing, Mr. King----"
"Stafford--you promised me," he began.
She reddened.
"I hardly like calling you by your christian name but it sounds so like a surname that perhaps it won"t be so bad."
"What do you want to ask?" he demanded.
She was silent for a moment, then she said:
"How far was my father implicated in this terrible business?"
"In the gang?"
She nodded.
He was in a dilemma. Solomon White was implicated as deeply as any save the colonel. In his younger days he had been the genius who was responsible for the organisation and had been for years the colonel"s right-hand man until the more subtle villainy of Pinto Silva, that Portuguese adventurer, had ousted him, and, if the truth be told, until the sight of his girl growing to womanhood had brought qualms to the heart of this man, who, whatever his faults, loved the girl dearly.
"You don"t answer me," she said, "but I think I am answered by your silence. Was my father--a bad man?"
"I would not judge your father," he said. "I can tell you this, that for the past few years he has played a very small part in the affairs of the gang. But what are you going to do?"
"How persistent you are!" she laughed. "Why, there are so many things I am going to do that I haven"t time to tell you. For one thing, I am going to work to undo some of the mischief which the gang have wrought.
I am going to make such reparation as I can," she said, her lips trembling, "for the evil deeds my father has committed."
"You have a mission, eh?" he said with a little smile.
"Don"t laugh at me," she pleaded. "I feel it here." She put her hand on her heart. "There"s something which tells me that, even if my father built up this gang, as you told me once he did--ah! you had forgotten that."
Stafford King had indeed forgotten the statement.
"Yes?" he said. "You intend to pull it down?"
She nodded.
"I feel, too, that I am at bay. I am the daughter of Solomon White, and Solomon White is regarded by the colonel as a traitor. Do you think they will leave me alone? Don"t you think they are going to watch me day and night and get me in their power just as soon as they can? Think of the lever that would be, the lever to force my father back to them!"
"Oh, you"ll be watched all right," he said easily, and remembered the commissioner"s warning. "In fact, you"re being watched now. Do you mind?"
"Now?" she asked in surprise.
He nodded towards a lady who sat a dozen yards away and whose face was carefully shaded by a parasol.