The girl stood with her back to Gladwin and the man she addressed slowly turned his head and glanced over her head with a keen, flashing look of inquiry. Gladwin lifted his chin a little and met the look without change of expression.
“Didn’t they tell you, Travers?” the girl repeated.
“Yes, yes; they told me,” he said hastily, still maintaining 200 his fixed gaze upon Gladwin. There was barely an instant’s pause before he spoke:
“Officer, kindly go up to my room and see if you can find a bag and pack enough things to last a week or two.”
“Yes, sorr.” Gladwin flung out of the room.
He started noisily up the stairs until he saw that the thief had turned his back to him, whereat he vaulted the banister and dropped lightly upon a divan in a recessed niche that could not be seen from the room he left.
The moment Gladwin vanished the thief turned to Helen and asked sharply:
“What time did you see my friends here?”
“A little after five,” replied the girl, recoiling slightly with a look of dismay, for there was a new raw edge to the sharpness of his tone.
“Did you tell them about the elopement?” he said less harshly, but with a scarcely veiled eagerness.