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"No, Louis," I answered, "unless I were convinced that Miss Delora
herself was implicated in these things. Then you could all go to the
devil for anything I cared!"

"Your interest," Louis murmured, "is in the young lady, then?"

"Absolutely and entirely," I answered. "Notwithstanding what you have
told me, and what I have surmised, the fact that you stood by me in
Paris would be sufficient to make me shrug my shoulders and pass on.
I am no policeman, and I would leave the work of exposing Delora to
those whose business it is. But you see I have an idea of my own,
Louis. I believe that Miss Delora is innocent of any knowledge of
wrong-doing. That I remain here is for her sake. If I try to discover
what is going on, it is also for her sake!"

"Monsieur has sentiment," Louis remarked, showing his teeth.

"Too much by far, Louis," I answered. "Never mind, we all have our
weak spots. Some day or other somebody may even put their finger upon
yours, Louis."

He smiled.

"Why not, monsieur?" he said.




CHAPTER XXVIII

CHECK


In my rooms a surprise awaited me. Felicia was there, walking
nervously up and down my little sitting-room She stopped short as I
entered and came swiftly towards me. In the joy of seeing her so
unexpectedly I would have taken her into my arms, but she shrank back.

"Felicia!" I exclaimed. "How did you come here?"

"Madame Muller went down for lunch," Felicia answered. "I said that I
had a headache, and stole up here on the chance of seeing you."

"They are making a prisoner of you!" I exclaimed.

"It is your fault," she answered.

I looked at her in surprise. Her face was stained with tears. Her
voice shook with nervousness.

"You have been making secret inquiries about my uncle," she said. "You
have been seen talking to those who wish him ill."

"How do you know this, Felicia?" I asked calmly.

"Oh, I know!" she answered. "They have told me."

"Who?" I asked. "Who has told you?"

"Never mind," she answered, wringing her hands. "I know. It is
enough. Capitaine Rotherby, I have come to ask you something."

"Please go on," I said.

"I want you to go away. I do not wish you to interest yourself any
more in me or in any of us."

"Do you mean that, Felicia?" I asked.

"I mean it," she answered. "My uncle has a great mission to carry out
here. You are making it more difficult for him."

"Felicia," I said, "I do not trust your uncle. I do not believe in his
great mission. I think that you yourself are deceived."

She held her head up. Her eyes flashed angrily.

"As to that," she said, "I am the best judge. If my uncle is an
adventurer, I am his niece. I am one with him. Please understand
that. It seems to me that you are working against him, thinking that
you are helping me. That is a mistake."

"Felicia," I said, "give me a little more of your confidence, and the
rest will be easy."

"What is it that you wish to know?" she asked.

"For one thing," I answered, "tell me when your uncle left South
America and when he arrived in Paris?"

"He had been in Paris ten days when you saw us first," she said, after
a moment's hesitation.

"And are you sure that he came to you from South America?" I demanded.

"Certainly!" she answered.

"To me," I said slowly, "he seems to have the manners of a
Parisian. Two months ago I lunched at Henry's with some old
friends. Can you tell me, Felicia, that he was not in Paris then?"

"Of course not!" she answered, shivering a little.

"Then he has a wonderful double," I declared.

"What is this that is in your mind about him?" she asked.

"I believe," I answered, "that he is personating some one, or rather I
have believed it. I believe that he is personating some one else, and
is afraid of being recognized by those who know."

"Will it satisfy you," she said slowly, "if I tell you, upon my honor,
Capitaine Rotherby, that he is indeed my uncle?"

"I should believe you, Felicia," I answered. "I should then feel
disposed to give the whole affair up as insoluble."

"That is just what I want you to do," she said. "Now, listen. I tell
you this upon my honor. He is my uncle, and his name is truly Delora!"

"Then why does he leave you here alone and skulk about from
hiding-place to hiding-place like a criminal?" I asked.

"It is not your business to ask those questions," she answered. "I
have told you the truth. Will you do as I ask or not?"

I hesitated for a moment. She was driving me back into a corner!

"Felicia," I said, "I must do as you ask me. If you tell me to go
away, I will go away; but do you think it is quite kind to leave me so
mystified? For instance," I added slowly, "on the night when that
beast Louis planned to knock that young Brazilian on the head, and
leave me to bear the brunt of it; he was up here talking to you,
alone, as though you were equals."

"It is my uncle who makes use of Louis," she said.

"I'm hanged if I can see how he can make use of a fellow like that if
his business is an honest one," I answered.

"It is not for you to understand," she answered. "You are not a
policeman. You are not concerned in these things."

"I am concerned in you!" I answered passionately. "Felicia, you drive
me almost wild when you talk like this. You know very well that it is
not curiosity which has made me set my teeth, and swear that I will
discover the truth of these things. It is because I see you implicated
in them, because I believe in you, Felicia, because I love you!"

She was in my arms for one long, delicious moment. Then she tore
herself away.

"You mean it, Austen?" she whispered.

"I mean it!" I answered solemnly. "Felicia, I think you know that I
mean it!"

"Then you must be patient," she said, "for just a little time. You
must wait until my uncle has finished his business. It will take a
very short time now. Then you may come and call again, and remind us
of your brother. You will understand everything then, and I believe
that you will be still willing to ask us down to your country home."

"And if I am, Felicia?" I asked.

"We shall come," she murmured. "You know that. Good-bye, Austen! I
must fly. If Madame Muller finds that I have left the room I shall be
a prisoner for a week."

I opened the door. Even then I would have kept her, if only for a
moment; but just as I bent down we heard the sound of footsteps
outside, and she hurried away. I sat down and lit a cigarette. So it
was over, then, my little attempt at espionage! My word was pledged. I
could do no more.

I walked round to Claridge's later in the evening and saw my brother.

"Ralph," I said, "if your offer of the shooting is still good, I think
I will take a few men down to Feltham."

"Do, Austen," he answered. "Old Heggs will be ever so pleased. It
seems a shame not to have a gun upon the place. I shall come down
myself later on. What about those people, the Deloras?"

"The uncle is away," I answered, "and the girl cannot very well come
by herself. Perhaps we may see something of them later on."

Ralph looked at me a little curiously, but he made no remark.

"You won't be lonely up here alone?" I asked.

He shook his head.

"I have plenty to do," he answered. "I shall probably be down myself
before the end of the month. Whom shall you ask?"

I made a list of a few of the men whom I knew, and who I believed were
still in town, but when I sat down to write to them I felt curiously
reluctant to commit myself to staying at Feltham. Even if I were not
to interfere, even if I were to stand aside while the game was being
played, I could not believe that the scheming of Louis and the
acquiescence of Felicia went for the same thing, and I had an
uncomfortable but a very persistent conviction to the effect that she
was being deceived. Everything from her point of view seemed
reasonable enough. What she had told me, even, seemed almost to
preclude the fear of any wrong-doing. Yet I could not escape from the
conviction of it. Some way or other there was trouble brewing, either
between Delora and Louis, or Delora and the arbiters of right and
wrong. In the end I wrote to no one. I determined to go down alone, to
shoot zealously from early in the morning till late at night, but to
have no house-party at Feltham,--to invite a few of the neighbors, and
to be free myself to depart for London any time, at a moment's notice.
It would come! somehow or other I felt sure of it. I should receive a
summons from her, and I must be prepared at any moment to come to her
aid.

I went into the club after I had left Claridge's, and stayed playing
bridge till unusually late. It was early in the morning when I reached
the Milan, and the hotel had that dimly lit, somewhat sepulchral
appearance which seems to possess a large building at that hour in the
morning. As I stood for a moment inside the main doors, four men
stepped out of the lift on my right, carrying a long wooden chest.
They slunk away into the shadows on tiptoe. I watched them curiously.

"What is that?" I asked the reception clerk who was on duty.

He shrugged his shoulders.

"It was a man who died here the day before yesterday," he whispered in
my ear.

"Died here?" I repeated. "Why are they taking his coffin down at such
an hour?"

"It is always done," the man assured me. "In hotels such as this,
where all is life and gayety, our clients do not care to be reminded
of such an ugly thing as death. Half the people on that floor would
have left if they had known that the dead body of a man has been lying
there. We keep these things very secret. The coffin has been taken to
the undertaker's. The funeral will be from there."

"Who is the man?" I asked. "Had he been ill long?"

The clerk shook his head.

"He was a Frenchman," he said; "Bartot was his name. He had an
apoplectic stroke in the cafe one day last week, and since then
complications set in."

I turned away with a little shiver. It was not pleasant to reflect
upon--this man's death!




CHAPTER XXIX

AN UNSATISFACTORY INTERVIEW


Before I was up the next morning I was informed that Fritz was waiting
outside the door of my room. I had him shown in, and he stood
respectfully by my bedside.

"Sir," he said, "I have once more discovered Mr. Delora."

"Fritz," I answered, "you are a genius! Tell me where he is?"

"He is at a small private hotel in Bloomsbury," Fritz declared. "It is
really a boarding-house, frequented by Australians and Colonials. The
number is 17, and the street is Montague Street."

I sat up in bed.

"This is very interesting," I said.

Fritz coughed.

"I trusted that you would find it so, sir," he admitted.

I thought for several moments. Then I sprang out of bed.

"Fritz," I said, "our engagement comes to an end this morning. I am
going to pay you for two months' service."

I went to my drawer and counted out some notes, which Fritz pocketed
with a smile of contentment.

"I am obliged to give up my interest in this affair," I said, "so I
cannot find any more work for you. But that money will enable you to
take a little holiday, and I have no doubt that you will soon succeed
in obtaining another situation."

Fritz made me a magnificent bow.

"I am greatly obliged to you, sir," he announced. "I shall take
another situation at once. Holidays--they will come later in life. At
my age, and with a family, one must work. But your generosity, sir,"
he wound up, with another bow, "I shall never forget."

I dressed, and walked to the address which Fritz had given me. As I
stood on the doorstep, with the bell handle still in my hand, the door
was suddenly opened. It was Delora himself who appeared! He shrank
away from me as though I were something poisonous. I laid my hand on
his shoulder, firmly determined that this time there should be no
escape.

"Mr. Delora," I said, "I want a few words with you. Can I have them
now?"

"I am busy!" he answered. "At any other time!"

"No other time will do," I answered. "It is only a few words I need
say, but those few words must be spoken."

He led the way reluctantly into a sitting-room. There were red plush
chairs set at regular intervals against the wall, and a table in the
middle covered by papers--mostly out of date. Delora closed the door
and turned toward me sternly.

"Captain Rotherby," he said, "I am quite aware that there are certain
people in London who are very much interested in me and my
doings. Their interests and mine clash, and it is only natural that
they should plot against me. But where the devil you come in I cannot
tell! Tell me what you mean by playing the spy upon me? What business
is it of yours?"

"You misunderstand the situation, sir," I answered. "More than ten
days ago you left me in charge of your niece at Charing Cross, while
you drove on, according to your own statement, to the Milan Hotel. You
never went to that hotel. You never, apparently, meant to. You have
never been near it since. You have left your niece in the centre of
what seems to be a very nest of intrigue. I have the right to ask you
for an explanation of these things. This morning I have a special
right, because to-day I have promised to go away into the country, and
to take no further interest in your doings."

"Let us suppose," Delora said dryly, "that it is already to-morrow
morning."

"No!" I answered. "There is something which I mean to say to you. You
need not be alarmed. The few words I have to say to you are not
questions. I do not want to understand your secrets,--to penetrate the
mystery which surrounds you and your doings. I will not ask you a
single question. I will not even ask you why you left your niece in
such a fit of terror, and have never yet dared to show your face at
the Milan."

"A child would understand these things!" Delora exclaimed. "The Milan
Hotel is one of the most public spots in London. It is open to any one
who cares to cross the threshold. It is the last place in the world
likely to be a suitable home for a man like myself, who is in touch
with great affairs."

"Then why did you choose to go there?" I asked.

"It was not my choice at all," Delora answered. "Besides, it was not
until I arrived in London that I understood exactly the nature of the
intrigues against me."

"At least," I protested, "you should never have brought your niece
with you. Frankly, your concerns don't interest me a snap of the
fingers. It is of your niece only that I think. You have no right to
leave her alone in such anxiety!"

"Nor can I see, sir," Delora answered, "that you have any better right
to reproach me with it. Still, if it will shorten this discussion, I
admit that if I had known how much trouble there was ahead of me I
should not have brought her. I simply disliked having to disappoint
her. It was a long-standing promise."

"Let that go," I answered. "I have told you that I have handed in my
commission. I have nothing more to do with you or your schemes,
whatever they may be. But I came here to find you and to tell you this
one thing. Felicia says that you are her uncle, she scouts the idea
of your being an impostor, she speaks of you as tenderly and
affectionately as a girl well could. That is all very well. Yet, in
the face of it, I am here to impress this upon you. I love your niece,
Mr. Delora,--some day or other I mean to make her my wife,--and I will
not have her dragged into anything which is either disreputable or
against the law."

"Has my niece encouraged you?" Delora asked calmly.

"Not in the least," I answered. "She has been kind enough to give me
to understand that she cares a little, and there the matter ends.
Nothing more could be said between us in this state of uncertainty.
But I came here for this one purpose. I came to tell you that if by
any chance Felicia should be mistaken, if you play her false in any
way, if you seek to embroil her in your schemes, or to do anything by
means of which she could suffer, I shall first of all shake the life
out of your body, and then I shall go to Scotland Yard and tell them
how much I know."

"About Mr. Tapilow, also?" Delora asked, with a sneer.

"Do you think I am afraid to take the punishment for my own follies?"
I asked indignantly. "If I believed that, I would go and give myself
up to-morrow. Louis can give me away if he will, or you. I don't care
a snap of the fingers. But what I want you to understand is this.
Felicia is, I presume, your niece. I should have been inclined to have
doubted it, but I cannot disbelieve her own word. I think myself that
it is brutal to have brought such a child here and to have left her
alone--"

"She is not alone," Delora interrupted stiffly. "She has a companion."

"Who arrived yesterday," I continued. "She has spent some very bad
days alone, I can promise you that."

"I have telephoned," Delora said, "twice a day--sometimes oftener."

I laughed ironically.

"For your own sake or hers, I wonder," I said. "Anyhow, we can leave
that alone. What I want you to understand is this, that if there is
indeed anything illegal or criminal in your secret doings over here,
you must take care that Felicia is safely provided for if things
should go against you. She is not to be left there to be the butt of a
great criminal action. If I find that you or any of your friends are
making use of her in any way whatever, I swear that you shall suffer
for it!"

Delora smiled at me grimly. He seemed in his few dry words to have
revealed something of his stronger and less nervous self.

"You terrify me!" he said. "Yet I think that we must go on pretty well
as we are, even if my niece has been fortunate enough to enlist your
sympathies on her behalf. Never mind who I am, or what my business is
in this country, young man. It is not your affair. You should have
enough to think about yourself in this country of easy extradition. My
niece can look after herself. So can I. We do not need your aid, or
welcome your interference."

"You insinuate," I declared indignantly, "that your niece is one of
your helpers! I do not believe it!"

"Helpers in what?" he asked, with upraised eyebrows.

"God knows!" I exclaimed, a little impatiently. "What you do, or what
you try to do, is not my business. Felicia is. That is why I have
warned you."

"Am I to have the honor, then?" Delora asked, with a curl of his thin
lips,--

"You are," I interrupted, "if you call it an honor, although to tell
you frankly, as things are at present, I am not inclined to go about
begging too many different people's permission. If it were not that my
brother Dicky has just written over from Brazil to ask me to be civil
to you and your niece, you wouldn't have left this place so easily."

"Your brother!" Delora said, looking at me uneasily. "Say that
again."

"Certainly!" I answered. "My brother Dicky, who is now out in Brazil,
and who has written to me about you. You met him there, of course?" I
added. "He stayed with you at--let me see, what is the name of your
place?" I asked suddenly.

"Menita," Delora answered, without hesitation. "Now you mention it, of
course I remember him! If he has written you to be civil to us, you
can do it best by minding your own business. In a fortnight's time I
shall be free to entertain or to be entertained. At present I am on a
secret mission, and I do not wish my work to be interfered with."

I moved toward the door.

"I have said all that I wish to say," I remarked. "If I hear nothing
from you I shall come back to London in fourteen days."

"You will find me with my niece," Delora said, "and we shall be happy
to see you."

I left him there, feeling somehow or other that I had not had the best
of our interview. Yet my position from the first was hopeless. There
was nothing for me to do but to keep my word to Felicia and let things
drift.

I drove to the club on my way to the station, where I had arranged for
my baggage to be sent. As I crossed Pall Mall I met Lamartine. He was
standing on the pavement, on the point of entering a motor-car on
which was piled some luggage.

"So you, too, are leaving London," I remarked, stopping for a moment.

He looked at me curiously.

"I am going to Paris," he said.

"A pleasure trip?" I asked.

He shook his head.

"Not entirely," he said. "Only this morning I made a somewhat
surprising discovery."

"Concerning our friend?" I asked.

"Concerning our friend," Lamartine echoed.

He seemed dubious, for a moment, whether to take me into his
confidence.

"You have not found Delora yet?" I asked.

"Not yet," he answered. "And you?"

"I have seen him," I admitted.

"Are you disposed to tell me where?" Lamartine asked softly.

I shook my head.

"I have finished with the affair," I told him. "I finish as I
began,--absolutely bewildered! I know nothing and understand
nothing. I am going down into the country to shoot pheasants."

Lamartine smiled.

"I," he remarked, entering the car, "am going after bigger game!"




CHAPTER XXX

TO NEWCASTLE BY ROAD


I found several of my brother's friends staying at Feltham, who were
also well known to me, and my aunt, who was playing hostess, had
several women staying with her. We spent the time very much after the
fashion of an ordinary house-party during the first week of October.
We shot until four o'clock, came home and played bridge until
dinner-time, bridge or billiards after dinner, varied by a dance one
night and some amateur theatricals. On the fifth day a singular thing
happened to me.

The whole of the house-party were invited to shoot with my uncle, Lord
Horington, who lived about forty miles from us. We left in two
motor-cars soon after breakfast-time, and for the last few miles of
the way we struck the great north road. It was just after we had
entered it that we came upon a huge travelling car, covered with dust,
and with portmanteaus strapped upon the roof, hung up by the side of
the road. Our chauffeur slowed down to find out if we could be of any
use, and as the reply was scarcely intelligible, we came to a full
stop. He dismounted to speak to the other chauffeur, and I looked
curiously at the two men who were leaning back in the luxurious seats
inside the car. For a moment I could not believe my eyes! Then I
opened the door of my own car and stepped quickly into the road. The
two men who were sitting there, and by whom I was as yet unobserved,
were Delora and the Chinese ambassador!

I walked at once up to the window of their car and knocked at it.
Delora leaned forward and recognized me at once. His face, for a
moment, seemed dark with anger. He let down the sash.

"What does this mean?" he asked. "Have you forgotten our bargain?"

I laughed a little shortly.

"My dear sir," I said, "it is not I who have come to see you, but you
to see me. I am within a few miles of my own estate, on my way to
shoot at a friend's."

He stared at me for a moment incredulously.

"Do you mean to tell me," he said, in a low tone, "that you have not
followed us from London?"

"Why I have not been in London, or near it, for five days," I told
him. "I slept last night within thirty miles from here, and, as I told
you before, am on my way to shoot with my uncle at the present
moment."

"I know nothing of the geography of your country," Delora said
shortly. "What you say may be correct. His Excellency and I are having
a few days' holiday."

"May I hope to have the pleasure of seeing you at Feltham?" I
inquired.

"I am afraid not," Delora answered. "If we had known that we should
have been so near, we might have arranged to pay you a visit. As it
is, we are in a hurry to get on."

"How far north did you think of going?" I asked.

"We have not decided," Delora answered. "Remember our bargain, and ask
no questions."

"But this is a holiday trip," I reminded him. "Surely I may be
permitted to advise you about the picturesque spots in my own
country!"

"You can tell me, at any rate, what it is that has happened to our
car," Delora answered. "Neither His Excellency nor I know anything
about such matters."

I walked round and talked to the two chauffeurs. The accident, it
seemed, was a trivial one, and with the help of a special spanner,
with which we were supplied, was already rectified. I returned and
explained matters to Delora.

"Have you come far this morning?" I asked.

"Not far," Delora answered. "We are taking it easy."

I looked at his tired face, at the car thick with dust, at the Chinese
ambassador already nodding in his corner, and I smiled to myself. It
was very certain to me that they had run from London without stopping,
and I felt an intense curiosity as to their destination. However, I
said no more to them. I made my adieux to Delora, and bowed profoundly
to the Chinese ambassador, who opened his eyes in time solemnly to
return my farewell. The chauffeur was already in his place, and I
stopped to speak to him. I saw Delora spring forward and whistle down
the speaking-tube, but my question was already asked.

"How far north are you going?" I asked.

"To Newcastle, sir," the man answered.

He turned then to answer the whistle, and I re-entered my own car. We
started first, but they passed us in a few minutes travelling at a
great rate, and with a cloud of dust behind them. Delora threw an evil
glance at me from his place. For once I had stolen a march upon him.
They had both been too ignorant of their route to keep their final
destination concealed from the chauffeur, and they certainly had not
expected to meet any one on the way with whom he would be likely to
talk! But why to Newcastle? I asked myself that question so often
during the morning that my shooting became purely a mechanical thing.
Newcastle,--the Tyne, coals, and shipbuilding! I could think of
nothing else in connection with the place.