Her foot tattooed impatiently on the floor. "Please don't treat me as if
I were a child, Mr. Foyle. Something has happened since yesterday
morning. I demand to know what it is."
Foyle was invariably gentle with women, and her insistent dignity rather
amused than angered him. "Since you demand it," he said suavely, laying
a scarcely perceptible stress on the word demand, "I will tell you. As
the result of certain information, observation has been kept on Lady
Eileen Meredith. She was followed yesterday to the advertisement offices
of the _Daily Wire_, where she made inquiries respecting a certain
cipher advertisement which was to appear in that paper. Failing to
obtain what she wanted, she left a note warning some one in the
following terms: 'The police know the cipher. Be very cautious. R. F. is
acting with them.'"
An angry flush swept across the girl's pale cheeks. "I know you have set
your spies about me," she said scornfully. "I did not come here to ask
you that. What----"
"One moment. Let me finish. This morning Lady Eileen rose at an
unfashionable hour--about four, to be exact--and went out to obtain a
copy of the _Daily Wire_. Having deciphered the advertisement, and
finding that it afforded no direct clue to Grell's whereabouts, she
returned home and there came across a paragraph--which I will confess
was inspired in this office--that set her wondering whether, after all,
her lover was safe. She went out again--this time to Waterloo Bridge
police station--and there made some inquiries----"
Eileen had got to her feet. She was plainly angry. "I don't want to know
how effective your spying on a harmless woman can be."
"I am glad you admit it is effective," he answered quickly. "I wanted to
bring that home to you. You cannot or will not understand in how
perilous a situation you may find yourself if you go on playing with
fire. There is no one else who has fuller sympathy with you or greater
understanding of your feelings than I. Therefore I warn you. Do you know
that merely on what you have done and are doing I should, were I certain
that Grell was guilty, be justified in having you arrested as an
accessory after the fact?" His voice became very grave. "If your conduct
has not hampered this investigation, Lady Eileen, it has not been for
want of effort. Take the warning of a man who wishes you well. For
neither your position nor your friends will save you if ever you stand
in my way. I shall do my duty, whatever the consequences."
She was more impressed by his words and his tone than she would have
cared to admit. But except that her face became a shade paler, she gave
no indication that the warning touched her. Foyle had picked up his hat
and stick.
"You have not found him, then?" she cried. "Can it be doing you any harm
to say what has happened?"
"We have not found Grell--yet," he answered. "We found where he had been
hiding, but he got away."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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