"Appearances would be too strongly against you, my friend. The law is 'a ha.s.s,' as doubtless you have heard before; and when it comes in the shape of a blue-coated, helmeted and thick-headed policeman, whose word do you think would be believed, yours or mine?--to say nothing of this evidence." Stooping, he picked up Leroy's gold watch and chain, which had fallen from his pocket during his struggle with Wilfer. "I found this is your hand. A clear case of a.s.sault and robbery, with penal servitude to follow."

Mr. Wilfer, dazed by the thickly-meshed net drawn round him, eyed the watch and yielded.

"Curse you!" he said. "You're a knowing one an' no mistake."

Jasper smiled.

"Thank you," he said; "a genuine compliment, and a candid one. Now then, to business. What did you want with Mr. Leroy?"

The man looked up at the smooth, masterful face, and inwardly acknowledged his opponent's power.

"I'm thinking, guv'nor," he answered slowly, "you heard all there was to hear, and saw all there was to see; an' a bit more besides," he added, as he thought of that precious gold watch he had so stupidly failed to see. "Any'ow, if you're so anxious for me to go over it all again, I wanted to know the whereabouts of a niece of mine--a young girl he took to 'is 'ome, some weeks ago."

Mr. Vermont's eyes gleamed and his hand shook slightly with excitement, as he lit another cigar; for evidently this was the girl at whom, he remembered, Norgate had grumbled. If she could only be kept out of sight, Jasper thought he saw a way to getting his beloved friend into even deeper trouble than he had ever dreamed possible.

"You can prove it, I suppose?" he asked.

"I can," said Mr. Wilfer; though, as a matter of fact, he would have found this rather a difficulty.

Mr. Jasper put his hand into his pocket; as we have said before, he was not very generous when it came to spending his own money, but there were occasions when it was necessary to buy fresh tools, and this was one of them. He drew out some gold, which Mr. Wilfer eyed as greedily as a dog would a bone.

"Now," said Vermont, "your address?"

"Cracknell Court, Soho, guv'nor," returned the man, his manner visibly altering at the sight of money.

"Well, don't you alter it without my permission," Jasper said sternly.

"I may want you to do something for me; and, if so, you can get your revenge. Meanwhile, here's something to keep you out of mischief, that's to say, in drink; you'll be safer like that." He handed over the money--about three pounds. "Mind! don't go selling any more forged pictures, like the one the bond of which I hold, or you'll get caught.

They make the sentences for fraud pretty heavy nowadays."

Mr. Wilfer shivered. Up to now, he himself had never been imprisoned; but other members of the gang had served various sentences, and their reminiscences were not comforting.

"I understand, guv'nor," he said; "but what of the gal?"

"All you've got to do is wait till she comes back; or if you find her about, let me know," replied Jasper. "Now, be off, and remember I can lay my hands on you--and so can the police--any minute I like, so don't play me any tricks. Good-night."

With that, Mr. Vermont turned on his heel and strode swiftly and silently away.

Wilfer looked after him with a scowl.

"He's a clever devil," he said, as he, too, went on his way.

Clever, Mr. Vermont most undoubtedly was. His worst enemies would not have denied him that virtue; but in this case his cleverness had over-reached itself. It had so amused him to torment his victim, that he had never questioned Wilfer's statement that the girl, Jessica, was his niece. Had he known her ident.i.ty, subsequent events might have proved far different; but man, with all his gifts, is blind as to the future; he sees as in a gla.s.s darkly, trusting and believing in his own feeble powers, as if he were omnipotent.

Meanwhile, Jasper trudged gaily along.

"Strange," he murmured, "how things work round for me. That princely idiot plays into my hands at every turn. What luck that I should just have followed him to-night--I'll live to see him humbled and disgraced yet!" With which pleasant thought he hummed Miss Lester's latest song and pursued his way to the theatre.

Some few hours later, he stood beside Adrien before the latter's motor.

"Are you coming with me, Jasper?" said Leroy heartily. "I'm afraid I've taken up a lot of your time to-night."

"My dear Adrien, does not my whole life belong to you?" replied the arch-hypocrite.

Adrien waved the suggestion aside.

"By the way, what is the time?" he said, feeling for his watch.

"I don't know," answered his friend, "mine has stopped."

"Well, mine has gone," said Leroy quietly. "I remember now; it was in that affair in the park."

"What?" exclaimed Jasper, in tones of the deepest sympathy. "Not that valuable repeater, surely?"

"Yes," said Adrien. "I must get another one."

Jasper smiled, as his fingers touched furtively the watch and chain in question.

"Did you find your papers?" inquired Adrien, as they rolled through the streets. "Jackson told me you lost them coming out of the theatre one night."

"No," answered Vermont, a flush of annoyance crossing his brow. "I have not. But it's of no consequence; Jackson need not have bothered you about such a trifle. Merely accounts. I dropped them somewhere between the stage and Ada's motor, and I suppose I must look upon them as gone for ever."

"I hope not," said Adrien sympathetically.

"They are of no consequence," said Vermont again, as they reached Jermyn Court.

Nevertheless, Mr. Vermont would have given many pounds of his dearly-beloved money to have had those papers safely clutched in his hand. But at present they were lying on the bosom of a wandering, homeless girl, and it was well for Jasper that he could not foresee when she was to cross his path again.

CHAPTER XIX

On the following morning, as Adrien stood before a mirror, putting the finishing touches to his toilet, carefully supervised by Norgate, his thoughts went back to Jessica. The idea of the child wandering about the streets, homeless and penniless, filled him with a supreme pity. He had meant to have spoken to Jasper about it, but he felt half ashamed; besides, he rather dreaded to see Vermont's cynical smile at the idea of his turning philanthropist to street-waifs.

He had just finished his breakfast when a servant appeared, with a dainty little note marked "Immediate."

The envelope bore no crest; for Lady Merivale used none in her correspondence with Adrien Leroy, from prudential motives. But he recognised the handwriting, and the faint Oriental scent her ladyship invariably used, and hastened to open it, fearing a lengthy epistle full of hysterical reproaches. To his intense relief he found that it contained but two lines.

"DEAR ADRIEN,--I shall spend the day with Aunt Rose at Hampton. Do you care to accompany me as you promised?"

"Indeed I do," murmured Adrien.

He recollected that on the day of the race he had promised Lady Merivale that, when next she visited her aunt, Lady Rose Challoner, at Hampton Court, he would meet her there, and row her to some of the pretty islands further up the stream, and there spend the day in delicious idleness.

So far, engagements on both sides had prevented this plan being carried out; but now Lady Merivale was evidently free, and he decided to cancel any existing arrangements, and fulfil his promise. Accordingly, sitting down at his desk, he dashed off a note: