She turned to Harleston with a mocking smile.

"I am listening, monsieur," she inflected. "What is it you, or rather America, would of me?"

"The letter you have in your possession," said Harleston.

"The letter!" she marvelled. "Why, Mr. Harleston, you know quite well that I never had the Clephane letter."

"Very true; we have the Clephane letter, as you style it; and we have also a _translation_. What we want from you is the letter that Captain Snodgra.s.s took from his mail box at the Rataplan this afternoon, and gave to you in the taxi on the way to the Chateau."

She smiled incredulously.

"Absurd, sir!" she replied. "Surely you are not serious!"

"Let me be entirely specific," he returned "I'll put all my cards on the table and play them open."

"Double dummy, by all means!" she laughed, perching her lithe length on the arm of a chair, one slender foot swinging slowly back and forth.

"Your play, monsieur."

"There is no need to go back farther than this morning," he observed.

"We knew that you were to meet Captain Snodgra.s.s and lunch with him at one o'clock at the Rataplan. Your man Marston, when he visited Mr.

Carpenter this morning, managed inadvertently to furnish the key-word of the Clephane letter. Do you see whither your meeting with Snodgra.s.s, an ex-officer of the Army, in view of the translation of the letter leads, Madeline? Marston, I might remark, was quickly apprehended; if he made a copy of the letter, he had no opportunity to use it. Well, you went to the Rataplan with Snodgra.s.s--every movement you two made, from the time you joined Snodgra.s.s at the Chateau until I myself put you in my cab when you returned to the hotel, was observed by numerous and competent shadows. We were convinced that you were to receive the formula--"

"What formula, Guy?"

"The formula mentioned in the Clephane letter," he explained; "which formula you received from Snodgra.s.s during the ride back from the Rataplan to the Chateau. He received it there by post, and got it from his box as you were leaving. He even was foolish enough to open the original envelope, and to put the one enclosed, unopened in his pocket.

You immediately took a taxi for the Chateau. My taxi was close behind yours; and I caught you as you were alighting and hurried you off to--"

"This pleasant appointment!" she laughed. "I suppose, Guy, you want the envelope and contents--which you a.s.sume Captain Snodgra.s.s transferred to me in the taxi; _n'est-ce pas?_"

"Exactly, Madeline."

"And it's three strong men and one woman against poor me," she shrugged--"unless Mrs. Clephane is merely a disinterested spectator."

"I am always interested in what Mr. Harleston does," Edith replied sweetly.

"Particularly when he is doing another woman," was the retort.

"It depends somewhat on the woman done," said Edith.

"Why are you here?" Mrs. Spencer laughed.

"To see the end of the affair of the cab-of-the-sleeping-horse."

Mrs. Spencer shrugged and turned to Harleston.

"Do you expect to end it, Guy?" she asked. "Because if you do, and this formulaic letter, that you think I have, will end it, I am sorry indeed to disappoint you. I haven't that letter, nor do I know anything as to it."

"In that event you have the consideration which you were to pay for the letter," Harleston returned.

"My dear Guy, where would I carry this consideration?" she laughed, with a sweeping motion to her narrow lingerie gown that could not so much as conceal a pocket.

"I don't imagine that you are carrying gold or even Bank of England notes. You're not so crude. The consideration is, most likely, a note to the German Amba.s.sador, on the presentation of which the money will be paid in good American gold. And I'm so sure of the facts that it is either the formula or the consideration. The latter we shall not appropriate; the former we shall keep."

"And if I have neither?" she asked.

"Then we get neither--though that is a consummation most unlikely."

"And how are you to determine?"

"By your gracious surrender of it!"

She laughed softly. "But if I am not able to be gracious?"

"I trust that we shall not be obliged to go so far." And when she would have answered he cut her short, courteously but with finality. "You've lost, Madeline; now be a good loser. You've won from me, and made me pay stakes and then some--and I've paid and smiled."

"Exactly! You've paid; I can't pay, because one loses before one pays, and I haven't anything to lose."

"You will prove it?" he asked.

"Certainly," said she. "Do you wish me to submit to a search?"

"I don't wish it, but you have left no alternative."

"Burr!" went the telephone.

The Secretary answered. "Here is Mr. Harleston," he said and pushed the instrument over.

"This is Ranleigh," came the voice. "We've searched the man, also the cab, and found nothing beyond some innocent personal correspondence.

We've retained the correspondence and let the man go."

"That, I suppose," Mrs. Spencer remarked as Harleston hung up the receiver, "was to say that Mr. Snodgra.s.s and the cab have been thoroughly searched and nothing suspicious found."

"Your intuition is marvellous," Harleston answered. "Major Ranleigh's report was that exactly. Consequently, Madeline, the letter must be with you."

"How about the consideration that Captain Snodgra.s.s received from me in return for the formulaic letter?" she asked. "He doesn't seem to have had it."

"Maybe you managed both to get the letter from him and to keep the consideration. It would not be the first time I have known you to accomplish it."

"Only once--against you, Guy!" she laughed.

Which was a lie; but scored for her--and, for the moment, silenced him.

She shot a glance at the Secretary. He was beating a tattoo on the pad before him and looking calmly at her--as impersonal as though she were a door-jamb; and she understood; however much he might be inclined to aid her, this was not the time for him even to appear interested. On another occasion, _a deux_, he would display sufficient ardour and admiration.

At present it must be the impa.s.sive face and the judicial manner. The business of the great Government he had the honour to represent was at issue!

There being no help from that high and mighty quarter, she turned to Harleston.

"Well," with a shrug of resignation, "I've lost and must pay. Here,"

opening the mesh-bag that she carried, "is the--"