Mr. Duperre is not playing a straight game--of that I'm sure!"

"Oh--why?" I asked with affected ignorance.

"I have again overheard something. Yesterday I was just going into the morning-room, the door of which stood ajar, when I heard father warning Duperre of something--I couldn't quite catch what it was. Only he said that he didn't approve of such drastic measures, and that 'the old man might lose his life.' To that Duperre replied: 'And if he did, n.o.body would be any wiser.' What can it mean?"

"I fear I am just as ignorant as yourself," I replied, looking the arch-crook's pretty daughter full in the face.

"Well," she said, "I know I can trust you, Mr. Hargreave. I have only you in whom I can confide."

"Yes," I a.s.sured her, bending across to her. "You can trust me implicitly. I, too, am just as puzzled as yourself."

"I know they have some business schemes together, Madame has often told me so," went on the girl. "But while I was away at Keswick I purposely got into conversation with an old gentleman named Lloyd at Madame's suggestion, as she told me our acquaintanceship would be useful to some business scheme of Vincent's. It appears that he wanted to become acquainted with Mr. Lloyd."

"And you acted upon her suggestion?" I asked, horrified that she was becoming the decoy of that circle of super-crooks.

"Yes, though it was against my will," was her reply. "I contrived to allow him to have an opportunity to chat with me, and I afterwards introduced Madame as my companion."

"And what followed?" I asked eagerly.

"Oh, he was very often with us, and took us for rides in his car all through the Lakes. The hotel was full of smart people, and I think they envied us."

I was silent for a moment.

"Have you any idea who Mr. Lloyd may be?" I asked.

"No, except that Madame told me that he is immensely rich. A few days later father came over to Keswick and stayed a few days and met him.

But the whole affair was most mysterious. I can't make it out,"

declared the girl. "Mr. Duperre never met him after all."

"We must remain patient and watch," I urged.

This we did, and very soon there came a strange development of that carefully planned introduction.

One day, on entering Rayne's study, I found him in conversation with a tall, dark, fashionably dressed foreign woman--Spanish, I believed her to be. As I went in unexpectedly she seemed to have risen and a.s.sumed a fierce defiant att.i.tude, while he, seated at his writing-table, was smoking one of his favorite expensive cigars and contemplating her with amus.e.m.e.nt.

"My dear Madame," he said, laughing, "pray sit down and let us discuss the matter coolly. I do not wish you to act in any way to jeopardize yourself. I have made certain plans; it is for you and your friends to carry them out. And I know how clever is your friend Louis Larroca. So there is no need for apprehension. Besides, if you trust me, as you have done hitherto, you will find the whole affair works quite easily--and without the least risk to yourselves."

Next second he realized that I had entered, and turning to me, said quite quietly:

"I'm engaged just now, Hargreave."

So I was forced to withdraw, full of wonder as to the nature of the latest conspiracy.

I found that a hired car from a garage at Thirsk was awaiting the lady, who, I learned from the young footman, had given her name as Madame Martoz.

A quarter of an hour later she drove away without, so far as I could discern, having seen either Duperre or his wife.

Next day Rayne, whom I drove into York in the new two-seater Vauxhall, told me as we went along that he was having a small house-party on the following Thursday.

"Just a few personal friends," he added.

I smiled within myself, for I knew the character of the personal friends of "The Golden Face."

Yet to my surprise, when Thursday came I found a.s.sembled half a dozen perfectly honest and respectable men and their wives, and in some cases their daughters. One was a London barrister, another a well-known member of Parliament, a third a rich Leeds manufacturer, while the others were more or less well known, and certainly all of the highest respectability. When Rayne gave a house-party he always did the thing well, and the days pa.s.sed in a round of well-ordered enjoyment, motoring, golf, tennis and visits to neighbors to the full delight of everyone. In the evening there were dancing and billiards, Duperre being the life and soul of the smart party.

On the fourth day, about twelve o'clock, Lola, who had made friends with Enid Claverton, the barrister's daughter, who was about the same age as herself, came to me in the garage, and said:

"Mr. Lloyd, whom we met at Keswick, has just arrived. He's come on a visit. Father told me nothing about it. Did he tell you?"

"Not a word," I replied, wondering why the person in question had been enticed into the spider's parlor. No doubt the highly respectable house-party had been invited to form a suitable setting for some secret villainy.

I met the new guest just before luncheon and found him a white-bearded, bald-headed, fresh-complexioned and rather dapper little man, whose merry eyes and easy-going manner marked him as a _bon vivant_ and something after Rayne's own style.

He greeted me when in the big hall with its long armorial windows, its old family portraits, and the many trophies of the chase that had been secured by the n.o.ble family who were previous owners of the Hall.

Rayne introduced me as his secretary.

I looked into the smartly dressed old fellow's blue eyes and wondered what foul plot against him had emanated from the abnormal brain of the arch-criminal who was his host. I smiled when I reflected on the horror of those guests did they but know who Rudolph Rayne really was.

But in their ignorance they enjoyed his unbounded hospitality and voted him a real good sort--as outwardly he was.

My time was occupied mostly in driving the Rolls, but when at home I watched narrowly yet was utterly unable to discern why the friendship of Mr. Gordon Lloyd, whose profession or status I failed to discover, had been so cleverly secured and carefully cultivated until he had now become a welcome guest under Rayne's roof.

There was a sinister design somewhere, but in what direction? Rudolph Rayne never lifted a finger or smiled upon a stranger without some evil intent by which to enrich himself. Usurers in the City have always been clever people backed by capital, but this super-crook had, I learned, risen in a few years from a small bookmaker in Balham to control the biggest combine of Thiefdom ever known in the annals of our time.

One day I drove Mr. Lloyd with Lola and a Mrs. Charlesworth, one of the guests, into Ripon to see the cathedral. We had inspected the fine transepts, the choir and the famous Saxon crypt--of which there is only one other in England--and had gone to the old Unicorn to tea.

We had sat down when, chancing to glance around, I saw, to my surprise, seated in a corner alone, the handsome Madame Martoz, who had had that confidential interview with Lola's father some days before. Our recognition was mutual, I saw, for she lowered her dark eyes and busied herself with the teapot before her. Yet I noticed that with covert glances she was still regarding us with some curiosity.

Ten minutes later a tall, swarthy-faced man with well-trimmed black mustache, a typical Spaniard, lounged in and sat at her table, while she gave him tea. Mr. Lloyd, Lola and Mrs. Charlesworth were busily chatting, but I noted that the Spanish woman whispered some words to her companion which caused him to glance in our direction. Afterwards they both rose and went out.

Later, when we had finished our tea, I went to the office in order to pay--for on such excursions I always paid on Rayne's behalf--and when doing so, I asked casually:

"Have you a Spanish gentleman staying here--a Mr. Larroca?"

"No, sir," replied the rather stout, pleasant bookkeeper. "We have a Mr. Bellido, a Spanish gentleman. He's just gone out with Madame Calleja, who is also Spanish, though they both speak English well."

I thanked her and rejoined my party. At least I had ascertained the names under which they were known, for Larroca was no doubt the real name of Bellido.

What mischief was intended? It was evident that we had been purposely sent by Rayne to that hotel in Ripon in order that Madame and her accomplice should see us, so that we could be identified again.

Certainly it was unnecessary for them to see Lola, Mrs. Charlesworth or myself. We had, I felt convinced, made that excursion in order that old Mr. Lloyd should be seen and known to the mysterious pair.

Two days afterwards our guests dispersed, but Mr. Lloyd, pressed by Madame Duperre, remained behind.

To me he seemed one of those wealthy, rather faddy men whom one encounters sometimes in the best hotels, men who move up and down the country aimlessly during the spring and summer and in winter go abroad for a few months; men with piles of well-battered and be-labelled baggage whose home is always in hotels and whose chief object in life is to dress in the fashion of the younger generation, to be seen everywhere, to give cosy little luncheon and dinner-parties, and be the "fairy" uncle of any pretty girl they may come across.

We have lots of such in England to-day. Ask the _chef-de-reception_ of any of our smartest hotels, and they will reel off the names of half a dozen or so elderly bachelors, widowers or wife-quarrelers with huge incomes who prefer to pa.s.s along the line of least resistance in domesticity--the private suite in an up-to-date hotel.

Mr. Gordon Lloyd was one of such, and it seemed that Rudolph Rayne, who now treated me with the greatest intimacy because he saw that he had drawn me so completely into his net, had become his dearest friend.

On the night when the last guest had departed I sat with the pair over the port, after Lola and Madame had left the dinner-table.