CHAPTER XXVI
IN SIGHT OF VICTORY
INEZ’ face as she said this was full of excellently simulated solicitude for me; but had she been aware of all I knew about Sampayo’s movements, she would certainly have chosen some other fairy tale with which to fool me.
“I am afraid some one has been misleading you,” I said drily; “unless, of course, you were present at the wedding?”
Her own instinct or my manner warned her that she had blundered. “I was—not present, Mr. Donnington.” She began the reply quickly, and the slight pause in the sentence came when she suddenly changed her mind; and the last words were spoken in a very different tone.
“When is the marriage said to have occurred? I don’t wish to question you in the dark, and will tell you that I know precisely all Major Sampayo’s recent movements. Let me suggest, therefore, that it is quite useless to fence with my questions.”
She fixed her eyes on me with a steady searching look. “Are you threatening me, Mr. Donnington?”
“I am asking you to let me see Mademoiselle Dominguez at once, madame.”
“I have told you she is with Major Sampayo’s friends.”
“You are one of those friends. Mademoiselle Dominguez is here,” I said as positively as if I knew it for a fact.
For a moment I thought she was going to give in; but her features set and she threw her head back with a toss of defiance. “You must have seen a yacht in the river for the last two days, the Rampallo. It is Major Sampayo’s; and Miralda joined him there last night.”