"That shows that she's no fool," remarked the foreigner quickly. "You who hold her in the hollow of your hand must prevent her from opening up to her husband. The whole future lies with you." "And what is the future without money? We want a few thousands for immediate necessities, both of us. The woman's allowance from her husband is nowadays a mere bagatelle." "Because he probably knows that some of her money has gone into your pockets, my dear boy." "No; he's completely in ignorance of that. How, indeed, could he know? She takes very good care there's no possibility of his finding out." "Well," remarked the stranger, "that's what I fear has happened, or may one day happen. The fact is, _caro mio_, we are in a quandary at the present moment. You were a bit too confident in dealing with those documents you found at Glencardine. You should have taken her ladyship into your confidence and got her to pump her husband concerning them. If you had, we shouldn't have made the mess of it that we have done." "I must admit, Krail, that what you say is true," declared the well-dressed man. "You are such a philosopher always! I asked you to come here in secret to explain the exact position." "It is one of peril. We are checkmated. Goslin holds the whole position in his hands, and will keep it." "Very fortunately for you he doesn't, though we were very near exposure when I went out to Athens and made a fool of myself upon the report furnished by you." "I believed it to be a genuine one. I had no idea that the old man was so crafty." "Exactly. And if he displayed such clever ingenuity and forethought in laying a trap for the inquisitive, is it not more than likely that there may be other traps baited with equal craft and cunning?" "Then how are we to make the _coup_?" Flockart asked, looking into the colourless eyes of his friend. "We shall, I fear, never make it, unless----" "Unless what?" he asked. "Unless the old man meets with an accident," replied the other, in a low, distinct voice. "_Blind men sometimes do, you know!_" CHAPTER XXIII WHICH SHOWS A SHABBY FOREIGNER Felix Krail, his cigarette held half-way to his lips, stood watching the effect of his insinuation. He saw a faint smile playing about Flockart's lips, and knew that it appealed to him. Old Sir Henry Heyburn had laid a clever trap for him, a trap into which he himself believed that his daughter had fallen. Why should not Flockart retaliate? The shabby stranger, whose own ingenuity and double-dealing were little short of marvellous, and under whose watchful vigilance the Heyburn household had been ever since her ladyship and her friend Flockart had gone south, stood silent, but in complete satisfaction.