“Come along, Maughan; sit here.” She pointed to the floor, and, black against black, invisible from where she had paused when she had entered the room, Leslie saw a heap of cushions. She sat obediently, looking up into the coarse face. So they sat surveying one another for a space, and then, flicking the ash from her cigarette, Anita Bellini spoke. “You have brains, I suppose?” “I suppose so,” said Leslie coolly. “Sufficient brains to know that I wouldn’t take the risk of bringing you here--abducting is the word, I think--unless my position was rather desperate. I’d have killed you last night, but that would have been a fatal mistake. You are much more useful to me alive.” Leslie smiled faintly. “Which sounds like a line from a melodrama!” she said. “The Javanese are a gentle, kindly people,” Anita said slowly, “but in some ways--they are not nice.” “I understand this is a threat as to what will happen to me if I do not do something you wish?” “You’re a sensible girl,” said Anita Bellini, and leaned forward, her elbows on her knees. She was very much like a fishwife in that attitude; there was something inexpressibly common about her, in spite of her monocle and her Parisian gown, and the luxury of her surroundings. “This afternoon”--she was still speaking very slowly and distinctly--“Coldwell applied to the Bow Street magistrate for a warrant--a warrant for my arrest and a search of this house. Did you know that?” Leslie was genuinely astonished and shook her head. “I had no idea, and I can’t think that what you say is true,” she said. “Mr. Coldwell made no mention of any such arrest; in fact, I was spending the night at his house, and I know he had arranged----” Anita broke into her explanation. “He applied. Whether the warrant was granted or not, I do not know. That is one point. Another is this: you visited Greta Gurden to-night, and she told you the one thing in the world I wished that she should not tell--I know because I saw you go in and come out of her flat, and I have seen Greta since,” she added grimly. “It isn’t necessary for me to tell you the vital information you discovered.”