A precaution had beentaken, brutally by men in a
panic of fear, not a sadic punishmentexacted.
Ricardo, that you alone exclaim when Isay three.
You look through the windowand you see in the shadow of that room a man with his
back to you. Then he smiled a little and raisedhis eyes to his companions
face.
Not one ghost haunted his pillow,not a question
plagued him with dreams. Ricardo agreed, but he was able to add a trifle to their
commonstore of recollections. Already on that night she knew of thisroom! I shall do
you no harm, Tidon replied with kindliness. Butno protest broke from the lips of the
two men who were thus arraigned.
And how, in spite of your fine cordon of police,
was Joycebrought to the Rue Gregoire? Ricardo asked greedily as he helped himself to
a filetmignon. Ricardo, to his shame,had no feelings of relief or
otherwise.
Whywas there something familiar and precise and
pedantic in the utterance ofRobin Webster?
And I remember that RobinWebster has a wounded
hand. No wonder thefirst in favour was the one who danced faster than the
others.
Hanaud answered with some pride, like a man who has
just learnt a newthing. But, on the other hand, the Prefect of Bordeaux has charged
me with aletter to you.
This is not acase of apaches in a cabaret, or a
burglary in the Champs Elysees.
It contains, no doubt, some pieces of
importantevidence.
Butyou didnt burn your hand, Monsieur Le Juge.
Yousee, I begin to ask myself, have I an enemy in that excellent examiningjudge?
Give me ananswer to some of these perplexities and then I have a hundred
otherquestions for you. Ricardo out of the car and steadied him across the pavement.
He was afraid now to know what had happened in that room.
And how did the mask come to becaught up in the
tree?
That was why he crept so furtively alongthe
terrace. On the other hand,they are not so like one another, either. Hanaud turned
on his heel and went out of the house.
If Hanaudhad the ambition to talk like a chauffeur,
that was his affair.
For who knew how many of the household ofSuvlac
were implicated in the mystery? The next minute, however, Hanaud beganto talk.