Again Henri shook his head. “He gave orders that the man was not to be admitted. And we? He was a ver’ wealthy man, Mr. Maddox. We could not afford to lose him.”
“But this Spaniard,” I reiterated, convinced it was the same man whom we had seen at Westport, “isn’t it possible that Mrs. Maddox really did pick him out as a detective in the hope that he might get acquainted with Paquita and so report on her husband?”
“We are just guessing, monsieur,” dodged Henri. “I speak only of the things I know—and not all of them.”
He had evidently told me in substance about all that he was sure of. I knew him of old. Even after he had told his story he liked to leave a sort of “continued in our next” at the close of it, just so that you would not think he was not what Broadway calls a “live one.” I had absorbed about all that he had at first hand. It was enough. It gave me a view of the characters of the chief actors, from an angle which others did not know. I rose nonchalantly, thanked Henri, and sauntered out as I had in the old days when the Star picked on me to expose some new society scandal.
The visit to Henri’s White Light cabaret had shown me one very important thing, however. Shelby Maddox had known Paquita before the night of the gay dinner party preceding the arrival of the Maddox family for the conference on the yacht.
What that might indicate I did not yet venture to guess. And yet I felt sure that it must prove significant. Else why had Paquita arrived at Westport at just that particular time? It seemed as though it must have something to do with the calling of the family conference.
Above all, however, stood forth the strange coincidence of the murder of Marshall Maddox, head of the family, and the stealing of the telautomaton, the most valuable single piece of property that the family owned. There was mystery enough in this case to satisfy even Kennedy.
VI
THE POISON GAS
A glance at my watch was sufficient to assure me that I should have no time for further inquiries if I wanted to meet Kennedy before going down to the office of Hastings. I wanted to do that, too, for I felt sure that Craig would talk more freely to me than to the rest, and my interest in the affair had by this time become insatiable.