Midway down that walk, by the side of which a thief had skulked nine hours ago, near that door whose lock had yielded to his cunning keys, the girl paused and confronted Lanyard spiritedly as he came up with heavy step and hang-dog head.
"Well, monsieur?" she demanded. "Do you mean to tantalize me longer with your reticence?"
But something in the haggard eyes he showed her made the girl catch her breath.
"What is it?" she cried anxiously. "Monsieur Duchemin, what is your trouble?"
"Only this truth that I must tell you," he said bitterly: "I merely played a part back there, just now. There was neither wit nor guess-work in that business; once I had seen Blensop's panic over the fancied loss of his pen, the rest was knowledge. I saw him and Ekstrom together last night—skulking in those windows, I watched them; and though in my denseness I didn't understand, I saw him write upon that pad, tear off and give the sheet to Ekstrom. And I knew Ekstrom had not succeeded in stealing back what he had sold to Colonel Stanistreet, knew he was guiltless in fact if not in deed."
"But—how could you know that?"
"Because I was there, in the room, when he entered it after it had been shut up for the night."
Conscious of her hands that fluttered like wounded things to her bosom, he looked away in misery.
"What were you doing there?" she whispered in the end.
"Trying to find that paper, which I had seen
