The Lost Million Part 25

At the corner of the Place Morand they halted for a few moments, while he emphasised his words by striking his palm with his clenched fist, and she stood listening, her gaze turned towards the ground. Then, together, they crossed the big square to the left and traversed the bridge, pa.s.sing beneath the deep shadows of the high, handsome Hotel de Ville.

Though at times I was quite near them, yet I could not, of course, catch a single word uttered by either. Only by their actions and gesticulations could I judge, and it appeared plain that she had met him under compulsion, and was refusing to act as he desired.

And yet he had only that very evening declared the woman to be his worst and most dangerous enemy!

I reflected as I strode slowly on, keeping the two dark figures in sight. Shaw had, after all, never concealed from me the fact that he was wanted by the police for some offence. His sportsmanlike att.i.tude, combined with his deep devotion to Asta, caused me involuntarily to like him. Perhaps it was because I loved her and he was her foster-father, always kind, indulgent, and solicitous for her welfare, that I really held him in esteem, even though he might be an adventurer.

Yet why had this woman Olliffe--as she now called herself--declared that Shaw had been Arnold's bitterest enemy? Surely it had been through my host himself that the woman knew of my existence, and my friends.h.i.+p with the dead man of mystery!

But even while I watched them turn the corner by the Hotel de Ville, and stroll up that broad, deserted thoroughfare--in day so busy with its rows of fine shops, but now quiet and deserted--towards the Place Bellecour, my thoughts reverted to Asta, she who had lost her lover, but whom I had grown to love so truly and so well.

Suddenly I turned upon my heel and abandoned pursuit of the pair. What mattered it to me? Their affairs, whatever they might be, were their own. I loved Asta. Indeed, because of my deepening affection for her I had accompanied them upon that tour which had for its object my love's forgetfulness of the black tragedy which had so suddenly overshadowed her young life.

Guy Nicholson had promised to reveal something to me in strictest confidence, but, alas! his lips had been mysteriously closed before he had had opportunity. Closed by whom?

I turned down upon the quays and, following the Rhone bank, was soon back at the hotel.

I left my hat in my own room and, on entering our private sitting-room found, to my delight, that Asta was still there. She had been reading and had just risen as I entered, for she stood by the pale-green curtains at the window, holding a fold of them in her hand, and looking forth into the starlit night, her slim young figure clearly outlined against their dull soft green, a becoming rose-flush upon her cheeks, her lips slightly parted, and her eyes bewitchingly bright.

"I've been waiting for Dad, Mr Kemball," she said. "Do you know where he is?"

"Out, I think," was my reply. "I suppose he's smoking in one of the cafes. He believed that you had gone to bed, I expect."

And I threw myself lazily into a chair.

I thought that her eyes filled with tears as she turned back towards the long open windows and gazed out into the Place below. And I confess that this surprised me.

"You are upset!" I said softly, rising and standing at her side.

"What's the matter, Miss Seymour? Tell me, confide in me--your friend."

"I--I hardly know," she faltered, in a strange hoa.r.s.e voice. I took her hand, and found it trembling. "But--"

"But what?" I asked. Her face was turned away from me towards the night.

"Well," she said, after a long pause, as though reluctant to tell me, "I fear that Dad has gone out to meet some one. When we arrived in this hotel I saw among his letters a handwriting which I recognised."

"The writing of a woman, eh?"

She started, turning to me quickly.

"How did you know?" she gasped.

"Well--I guessed," I laughed.

"You guessed correctly. And I have suspicion that he has gone out to-night to meet her in secret--to--"

I waited for her to conclude her sentence, but her lips closed with a snap. The colour had left her cheeks while in her eyes was a strange wild look of fear.

"In confidence, Miss Seymour, I may as well tell you that I saw him half-an-hour ago walking with a lady--a person who lives near Bath under the name of Olliffe."

"Then my suspicions are correct!" she cried. "That woman has regained her power over him. My poor Dad! He has fallen into her clutches. Ah, Mr Kemball, if you only knew all!" she added. "If only I dare tell you!"

"Why not tell me? Surely I am your friend! You may trust me not to betray any secret," I said in deep earnestness.

"They have met to-night. There is some mischief brewing. She is cruel, evil, unscrupulous."

"I know--and a convicted criminal."

"You know her, then?" she asked quickly, looking into my eyes.

"Yes. I am acquainted with Lady Lettice Lancaster, as she was once called, and I know that she was sentenced at the Old Bailey for a series of remarkably ingenious frauds. Is she an a.s.sociate of your father's?"

"She was once, I believe--before her sentence," replied the girl. "She exercised over him a strange, incomprehensible fascination, as an evil woman so often can over a man. He acted at her bidding, and--well, I know but little, Mr Kemball, but, alas! what I know is, in itself, too much. I am surprised that Dad, knowing the woman's character, should dare to again a.s.sociate himself with her."

"She introduced me to her brother, George King. Do you know him?"

"Yes. He sometimes pa.s.ses as her brother and sometimes as butler or chauffeur. But he is her husband, Henry Earnshaw, sometimes known as h.o.a.re."

"And your father a.s.sisted them in their frauds, eh?"

"That is my supposition. I have no actual knowledge, for it was several years ago, when I was but a girl," was her reply.

"And you fear that the outcome of the meeting to-night may be another mutual arrangement?"

She nodded sadly in the affirmative.

"The combination of Dad and these people would, indeed, be a formidable one," she said. "Ah! if he would only take my advice and end it all!

He has sufficient to live upon comfortably. Why does he court disaster in this way? He has always been, so very good to me, ever since I was a tiny child, that I cannot help loving him."

I did not reply. What could I say? I longed to speak frankly to her and take her out of that atmosphere of evil. Yet what could I do? How could I act?

"I have a suspicion that poor Mr Arnold was a friend of that woman," I said a few moments later, as she stood against the table before me.

"Yes," was her reply. "He was her friend and benefactor, I believe. He did all he could for her defence before the judge, but to no avail."

"Somebody betrayed her into the hands of the police?"

"Dad told me so once. He believes it to have been her own husband, the man Earnshaw."

I did not speak for a few moments. I was thinking of that strange letter which had threatened vengeance against the mysterious scholar, Mr Arnold. The latter had been accused of what he had not done, yet that very accusation had given me a clue to some very curious circ.u.mstances, and had forewarned me as to the true character of the wealthy widow of Ridgehill Manor.

"Has your father any ground for declaring the woman's conviction to be due to Earnshaw?"

"Yes, I believe so; but he has never told any one, except myself."

"But if he and Mrs Olliffe become on friendly terms again, he will doubtless reveal what he knows."

"Probably. Then the man Earnshaw will turn against her--and against Dad also. In that lies the great peril for Dad which I apprehend."