"Madame," the Commissioner begged, "pray compose yourself. A tragedy has happened in this room--but we are not sure. Can you be brave, madame?"
"I can," she answered. "Of what are you not sure?"
The Commissioner turned down the sheet a few inches. A man"s face was visible, a ghastly sight. She looked at it and shrieked hysterically.
"Is that your husband, madame?" the Commissioner asked quickly.
"Thank G.o.d, no!" she cried. "You are sure this is the man?" she went on, her voice shaking with fierce excitement. "There is no one else--hurt?
No one else stabbed? This is the man they told me was my husband?"
"He was found there, sitting at your husband"s table, madame," the Commissioner of Police a.s.sured her. "There is no one else."
She suddenly began to cry.
"It isn"t Henry!" she sobbed, groping her way from the room. "Take me downstairs, please, some one."
CHAPTER XXIII
TROUBLE BREWING
The maitre d"hotel had presented his bill. The little luncheon party was almost over.
"So I take leave," Hunterleys remarked, as he sat down his empty liqueur gla.s.s, "of one of my responsibilities in life."
"I think I"d like to remain a sort of half ward, please," Felicia objected, "in case David doesn"t treat me properly."
"If he doesn"t," Hunterleys declared, "he will have me to answer to.
Seriously, I think you young people are very wise and very foolish and very much to be envied. What does Sidney say about it?"
Felicia made a little grimace. She glanced around but the tables near them were unoccupied.
"Sidney is much too engrossed in his mysterious work to concern himself very much about anything," she replied. "Do you know that he has been out all night two nights this week already, and he is making no end of preparations for to-day?"
Hunterleys nodded.
"I know that he is very busy just now," he a.s.sented gravely. "I must come up and talk to him this afternoon."
"We left him writing," Felicia said. "Of course, he declares that it is for his beloved newspaper, but I am not sure. He scarcely ever goes out in the daytime. What can he have to write about? David"s work is strenuous enough, and I have told him that if he turns war correspondent again, I shall break it off."
"We all have our work to do in life," Hunterleys reminded her. "You have to sing in _Ada_ to-night, and you have to do yourself justice for the sake of a great many people. Your brother has his work to do, also.
Whatever the nature of it may be, he has taken it up and he must go through with it. It would be of no use his worrying for fear that you should forget your words or your notes to-night, and there is no purpose in your fretting because there may be danger in what he has to do. I promise you that so far as I can prevent it, he shall take no unnecessary risks. Now, if you like, I will walk home with you young people, if I sha"n"t be terribly in the way. I know that Sidney wants to see me."
They left the restaurant, a few minutes later, and strolled up towards the town. Hunterleys paused outside a jeweler"s shop.
"And now for the important business of the day!" he declared. "I must buy you an engagement present, on behalf of myself and all your guardians. Come in and help me choose, both of you. A girl who carries her gloves in her hand to show her engagement ring, should have a better bag to hang from that little finger."
"You really are the most perfect person that ever breathed!" she sighed.
"You know I don"t deserve anything of the sort."
They paid their visit to the jeweler and afterwards drove up to the villa in a little victoria. Sidney Roche was hard at work in his shirt-sleeves. He greeted Hunterleys warmly.
"Glad you"ve come up!" he exclaimed. "The little girl"s told you the news, I suppose?"
"Rather!" Hunterleys replied. "I have been lunching with them on the strength of it."
"And look!" Felicia cried, holding out the gold bag which hung from her finger. "Look how I am being spoiled."
Her brother sighed.
"Awful nuisance for me," he grumbled, "having to live with an engaged couple. You couldn"t clear out for a little time," he suggested, "both of you? I want to talk to Hunterleys."
"We"ll go and sit in the garden," Felicia a.s.sented. "I suppose I ought to rest. David shall read my score to me."
They pa.s.sed out and Roche closed the door behind them carefully.
"Anything fresh?" Hunterleys asked.
"Nothing particular," was the somewhat guarded reply. "That fellow Frenhofer has been up here."
"Frenhofer?" Hunterleys repeated, interrogatively.
"He is the only man I can rely upon at the Villa Mimosa," Roche explained. "I am afraid to-night it"s going to be rather a difficult job."
"I always feared it would be," Hunterleys agreed.
"Frenhofer tells me," Roche continued, "that for some reason or other their suspicions have been aroused up there. They are all on edge. You know, the house is cram-full of men-servants and there are to be a dozen of them on duty in the grounds. Two or three of these fellows are nothing more or less than private detectives, and they all of them know what they"re about or Grex wouldn"t have them."
Hunterleys looked grave.
"It sounds awkward," he admitted.
"The general idea of the plot," Roche went on, walking restlessly up and down the room, "you and I have already solved, and by this time they know it in London. But there are two things which I feel they may discuss to-night, which are of vital importance. The first is the date, the second is the terms of the offer to Douaille. Then, of course, more important, perhaps, than either of these, is the matter of Douaille"s general att.i.tude towards the scheme."
"So far," Hunterleys remarked reflectively, "we haven"t the slightest indication of what that may be. Douaille came pledged to nothing. He may, after all, stand firm."
"For the honour of his country, let us hope so," Roche said solemnly.
"Yet I am sure of one thing. They are going to make him a wonderful offer. He may find himself confronted with a problem which some of the greatest statesmen in the world have had to face in their time--shall he study the material benefit of his country, or shall he stand firm for her honour?"
"It"s a great ethical question," Hunterleys declared, "too great for us to discuss now, Sidney. Tell me, do you really mean to go on with this attempt of yours to-night?"
"I must," Roche replied. "Frenhofer wants me to give up the roof idea, but there is nothing else worth trying. He brought a fresh plan of the room with him. There it lies on the table. As you see, the apartment where the meeting will take place is almost isolated from the rest of the house. There is only one approach to it, by a corridor leading from the hall. The east and west sides will be patrolled. On the south there is a little terrace, but the approach to it is absolutely impossible.
There is a sheer drop of fifty feet on to the beach."
"You think they have no suspicion about the roof?" Hunterleys asked doubtfully.