"But tell me, m"sieur," exclaimed the police officer. "It seems extraordinary that any person should creep along this veranda." And he walked out and looked about in the moonlight. "If the culprit wished to shoot Mademoiselle in secret, then he would surely not have done so in your presence. He might easily have shot her as she was on her way home.
The road is lonely up here."
"I agree, monsieur," replied the Englishman. "The whole affair is, to me, a complete mystery. I saw n.o.body. But it was plain to me that when I called Mademoiselle was seated out upon the veranda. Look at her chair--and the cushions! It was very hot and close in the Rooms to-night, and probably she was enjoying the moonlight before retiring to bed."
"Quite possibly," he agreed. "But that does not alter the fact that the a.s.sa.s.sin ran considerable risk in coming along the veranda in the full moonlight and firing through the open door. Are you quite certain that Mademoiselle"s a.s.sailant was outside--and not inside?" he asked, with a queer expression upon his aquiline face.
Hugh saw that he was hinting at his suspicion that he himself had shot her!
"Quite certain," he a.s.sured him. "Why do you ask?"
"I have my own reasons," replied the police officer with a hard laugh.
"Now, tell me what do you know about Mademoiselle Ferad?"
"Practically nothing."
"Then why did you call upon her?"
"I have told you. I desired some information, and she was about to give it to me when the weapon was fired by an unknown hand."
"Unknown--eh?"
"Yes. Unknown to me. It might be known to Mademoiselle."
"And what was this information you so urgently desired?"
"Some important information. I travelled from London to Monte Carlo in order to obtain it."
"Ah! Then you had a motive in coming here--some strong motive, I take it?"
"Yes. A very strong motive. I wanted her to clear up certain mysterious happenings in England."
Ogier was instantly alert.
"What happenings?" he asked, for he recollected the big dossier and the suspicions extending over four or five years concerning the real ident.i.ty and mode of life of the handsome, sphinx-like woman Yvonne Ferad.
Hugh Henfrey was silent for a few moments. Then he said:
"Happenings in London that--well, that I do not wish to recall."
Ogier again looked him straight in the face.
"I suggest, M"sieur Henfrey"--for Hugh had given him his name--"I suggest that you have been attracted by Mademoiselle as so many other men have been. She seems to exercise a fatal influence upon some people."
"I know," Hugh said. "I have heard lots of things about her. Her success at the tables is constant and uncanny. Even the Administration are interested in her winnings, and are often filled with wonder."
"True, m"sieur. She keeps herself apart. She is a mysterious person--the most remarkable in all the Princ.i.p.ality. We, at the Bureau, have heard all sorts of curious stories concerning her--once it was rumoured that she was the daughter of a reigning European sovereign. Then we take all the reports with the proverbial grain of salt. That Mademoiselle is a woman of outstanding intellect and courage, as well as of great beauty, cannot be denied. Therefore I tell you that I am intensely interested in this attempt upon her life."
"And so am I," Hugh said. "I have a strong reason to be."
"Cannot you tell me that reason?" inquired the officer of the Surete, still looking at him very shrewdly. "Why fence with me?"
Henfrey hesitated. Then he replied:
"It is a purely personal matter."
"And yet, you have said that you were not acquainted with Mademoiselle!"
remarked Ogier suspiciously.
"That is quite true. The first time I have spoken to her was this evening, a few minutes before the attempt was made upon her life."
"Then your theory is that while you stood in conversation with her somebody crept along the veranda and shot her--eh?"
"Yes."
Ogier smiled sarcastically, and turning to his colleague, ordered him to search the room. The inspector evidently suspected the young Englishman of having shot Mademoiselle, and the search was in order to try and discover the weapon.
Meanwhile the brown-bearded officer called the Italian manservant, who gave his name as Giulio Cataldi, and who stated that he had been in Mademoiselle Ferad"s service a little over five years.
"Have you ever seen this Englishman before?" Ogier asked, indicating Hugh.
"Never, until to-night, m"sieur," was the reply. "He called about twenty minutes after Mademoiselle"s return from the Rooms."
"Has Mademoiselle quarrelled with anybody of late?"
"Not to my knowledge, m"sieur. She is of a very quiet and even disposition."
"Is there anyone you know who might possess a motive to shoot her?"
asked Ogier. "The crime has not been committed with a motive of robbery, but either out of jealousy or revenge."
"I know of n.o.body," declared the highly respectable Italian, whose moustache was tinged with grey. He shrugged his shoulders and showed his palms as he spoke.
"Mademoiselle arrived here two months ago, I believe?" queried the police official.
"Yes, m"sieur. She spent the autumn in Paris, and during the summer she was at Deauville. She also went to London for a brief time, I believe."
"Did she ever live in London?" asked Hugh eagerly, interrupting Ogier"s interrogation.
"Yes--once. She had a furnished house on the Cromwell Road for about six months."
"How long ago?" asked Henfrey.
"Please allow me to make my inquiries, monsieur!" exclaimed the detective angrily.
"But the question I ask is of greatest importance to me in my own inquiries," Hugh persisted.
"I am here to discover the ident.i.ty of Mademoiselle"s a.s.sailant," Ogier a.s.serted. "And I will not brook your interference."
"Mademoiselle has been shot, and it is for you to discover who fired at her," snapped the young Englishman. "I consider that I have just as much right to put a question to this man as you have, that is"--he added with sarcasm--"that is, of course, if you don"t suspect him of shooting his mistress."