It was early the next morning, about half an hour after the time set for the release of the passengers, that our laboratory door was flung open and Collette Aux Cayes rushed in, wildly excited.
"What's the matter?" asked Kennedy anxiously.
"Someone has been trying to keep me on the boat," she panted. "And all the way over here a man has been following me."
Kennedy looked at her a minute calmly. We could understand why she might have been shadowed, though it must have been a bungling job of Burke's operative. But who could have wanted her kept on the boat?
"I don't know," she replied, in answer to Kennedy's question. "But somehow I was the only one not told that we could go. And when I did go, one of the Secret Service men stopped me."
"Are you sure it was a Secret Service man?"
"He said he was."
"Yes, but if he had been, he would not have done that, nor let you get away, if he had. Can't you imagine anyone who might want you detained longer?"
She looked at us, half frightened. "N—not unless it is that man—or the woman with him," she replied, clasping her hands.
"You mean Castine?"