“What was that?”
“As I was passing your door, ten minutes ago, I saw a man fumbling with the lock. It looked to me as if he was just locking the door; but when I stepped up to him he explained that he had made a mistake, and was trying to get in, thinking it was his own room.”
“Ah!” Hawley exclaimed. “Do you know who he was?”
“Yes, sir; it was the gentleman who occupies the room across the hall from yours—Señor José Lopez.”
“The deuce!” muttered Hawley. “No wonder he has such a catlike tread. Evidently he needs it in his business. Begins to look as if he might be one of Portiforo’s spies sent—— By Jove! I’ve got the answer, now, as to where I’ve seen his face. What a chump I am not to have remembered before. It was the absence of his whiskers that fooled me. His appearance is considerably changed without them, but I’m quite sure, now, that he’s the same busybody who was trailing Señora Felix in a taxicab.”
CHAPTER VI.
A MEETING AFTER DARK.
If the Camera Chap had witnessed a meeting which took place that night between Señora Felix and a certain tall, soldierly-looking male passenger, and if he could have overheard their conversation, he would have been greatly amazed and perplexed.
It was well on toward midnight. The musicians had long ago ceased playing, and most of the passengers had turned in. The promenade deck was as deserted as Broadway after four a. m. The señora, as she stood at the rail, pensively watching the moonbeams playing upon the waves, was as motionless as a wax figure. She was wrapped in a long, black silk shawl so arranged about her head that most of her face was hidden, but the tall, soldierly-looking man who stepped up to her had no difficulty in recognizing her.
She turned swiftly at the sound of his footfall behind her, and an exclamation of pleasure escaped her lips. “So you managed it all right!” she whispered in Spanish.
“Yes, señora; but it is very unwise. I got your message, and I felt that I had to obey this time—but it must not occur again. The risk is too great.”