Battle, Superintendent (Fictitious character) -- Fiction; Detective and mystery stories; Police -- England -- Fiction
“Yes, I went to Dinard and had an interview with the Comtesse de
Breteuil, awfully pleased with my own cleverness, and fully expecting
to be told that no such person as Mademoiselle Brun had ever been
heard of. Instead of which I was given to understand that the lady in
question had been the mainstay of the household for the last seven
years. So, unless the Comtesse is also a crook, that ingenious theory
of mine falls to the ground.”
Virginia shook her head.
“Madame de Breteuil is quite above suspicion. I know her quite well,
and I fancy I must have come across Mademoiselle at the chateau. I
certainly know her face quite well—in that vague way one does know
governesses and companions and people one sits opposite to in trains.
It’s awful, but I never really look at them properly. Do you?”
“Only if they’re exceptionally beautiful,” admitted Anthony.
“Well, in this case——” she broke off. “What’s the matter?”
Anthony was staring at a figure which detached itself from the clump of
trees and stood there rigidly at attention. It was the Herzoslovakian,
Boris.
“Excuse me,” said Anthony to Virginia, “I must just speak to my dog a
minute.”
He went across to where Boris was standing.
“What’s the matter? What do you want?”
“Master,” said Boris, bowing.
“Yes, that’s all very well, but you mustn’t keep following me about
like this. It looks odd.”
Without a word, Boris produced a soiled scrap of paper, evidently torn
from a letter, and handed it to Anthony.
“What’s this?” said Anthony.
There was an address scrawled on the paper, nothing else.
“He dropped it,” said Boris. “I bring it to the Master.”
“Who dropped it?”
“The foreign gentleman.”
“But why bring it to me?”
Boris looked at him reproachfully.
“Well, anyway, go away now,” said Anthony. “I’m busy.”
Boris saluted, turned sharply on his heel, and marched away. Anthony
rejoined Virginia, thrusting the piece of paper into his pocket.
“What did he want?” she asked curiously. “And why do you call him your
dog?”
“Because he acts like one,” said Anthony, answering the last question
first. “He must have been a retriever in his last incarnation, I think.
He’s just brought me a piece of a letter which he says the foreign
gentleman dropped. I suppose he means Lemoine.”
“I suppose so,” acquiesced Virginia.
“He’s always following me round,” continued Anthony. “Just like a dog.
Says next to nothing. Just looks at me with his big round eyes. I can’t
make him out.”
“Perhaps he meant Isaacstein,” suggested Virginia. “Isaacstein looks
foreign enough, Heaven knows.”
“Isaacstein,” muttered Anthony impatiently. “Where the devil does he
come in?”
“Are you ever sorry that you’ve mixed yourself up in all this?” asked
Virginia suddenly.
“Sorry? Good Lord, no. I love it. I’ve spent most of my life looking
for trouble, you know. Perhaps, this time, I’ve got a little more than
I bargained for.”
“But you’re well out of the wood now,” said Virginia, a little
surprised by the unusual gravity of his tone.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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