270
THE SURAKARTA
This morning, therefore, in order to see and warn you before it was too late, I was obliged against my will to destroy the single circumstance which has so far prevented your arrest by directing the almost conclusive suspicions of the police away from yourself. Mr. Annis, do I make this clear?"
Annis ran his fingers through his bleached hair; he paced back and forth, his lithe, slender body automatically avoiding the furniture of the room, which, in his absorption, he did not see. He halted finally in front of Hereford.
"Quite clear," he said. "You make it quite clear that to avoid embarrassment I ought to leave this hotel; but you do not make it so clear, since it is only embarrassment that I would avoid, that I should do
