“Now I have left nothing to chance. Westerham, if you please, must go
nosing around the garage in Rupert Street to find out where his car is.
It had gone, of course, to Holyhead as the result of my instructions.
The manager wired to the chauffeur at Chester to return to town at
once. But I wired to Birmingham to stop it there. Crow went down and
dismissed the chauffeur, saying that he came from Westerham. The car is
now in Chelsea, and we shall have the pleasure of using it to-day. It
is just the car we want, because for some reason or other Westerham had
it fitted with blind shutters.”
Madame nodded her head.
“We will telephone to Westminster and get the car to meet us at Oxford
Circus. You can go down to Downing Street, and I will take a taxicab to
the Star and Garter, Richmond. When you get to No. 10 simply ask for
the Lady Kathleen, but give no name and refuse your business. That will
merely arouse her curiosity, and the fact that you come in such a car
will certainly obtain you an audience.”
Melun then went on to give Madame various instructions, enjoining her
not to talk to Lady Kathleen on the way down to Richmond.
They then took a cab to Oxford Circus together and telephoned from the
District Messengers' office to the garage at Chelsea for the car to
come on to them at once at Pagani's.
It was shortly after twelve o'clock when Westerham's car reached the
famous restaurant in Great Portland Street.
Melun, as he took leave of Mme. Estelle, again enjoined her to silence;
and though Madame promised that she would not discuss his affairs with
Lady Kathleen, she was, if the truth were told, not quite decided
whether she would keep her word.
Her arrival in Downing Street occasioned a little surprise and not a
little curiosity on the part of the doorkeeper when she refused to give
her name. Without much delay, however, she was shown into the long,
old-fashioned drawing-room, and it was not many minutes before Lady
Kathleen appeared.
Kathleen came into the room very quietly. The sudden alarms and
excursions amid which she had lately lived were accustoming her to
strange and unexpected events, and she instinctively guessed that the
woman who awaited her in the drawing-room was in some way connected
with her father's secret.
As she entered the room Mme. Estelle rose from her seat and bowed. She
did not attempt to shake hands, nor, indeed, did Lady Kathleen make any
demonstration of friendship.
During the short drive from Oxford Street Madame had rehearsed her
little part to herself. Now she played it perfectly.
“Russia needs you,” she said.
Kathleen's face paled, and she drew back a step.
“I don't quite understand,” she said.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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