“But I haven’t tried to make a fool of you, Mr. Hawley,” Virginia protested meekly.
Hawley received this with an ironical laugh. Gale was astonished by his demeanor. On Park Row the Camera Chap enjoyed the enviable reputation of never having been known to lose his temper. It was said to be one of the reasons for his success. But now it was evident that he was far from being in an amiable mood.
“For three weeks I’ve been hanging around Puerto Cabero, tying knots in my brain, trying to find a way of getting inside the fortress, in order to corroborate that story you told me the first day I met you,” Hawley said bitterly. “If you don’t call that making a fool of me, Miss Throgmorton, I’d like to know why. Perhaps you’d still like me to believe that Felix is locked up in El Torro?”
“Well, isn’t he?” Virginia inquired, a tinge of mockery in her voice.
“Isn’t he!” echoed Hawley. “As though you didn’t know! I suppose your subtle friend, the señora, hasn’t taken you into her confidence regarding the letters she has been receiving from her husband, eh?”
“The letters!” the girl repeated, her voice trembling. “Why, what do you mean?”
Hawley laughed triumphantly. “I guess you know what I mean, Miss Throgmorton. I am referring to the letters which our missing friend, Felix, has been writing his wife from Paris.”
Gale heard Virginia utter a little cry of dismay. “Who told you?” she began. Then, as though suddenly on her guard: “If there are any such letters, why should you expect me to know about them?”
The Camera Chap’s answer caused the eavesdropper to give a start of astonishment. “Because,” he charged sternly, “you happen to have those letters in your possession now. It is no use attempting to deny it, Miss Throgmorton. If you knew the source of my information you would realize that. Your friend Señora Felix handed you the package of correspondence to-day. She asked you to take care of them for her; possibly because she was afraid to keep them herself, for fear that Portiforo’s spies might ransack her house and find them. At the present moment they are concealed in a drawer of your desk, tied up with pink ribbon. You see that I know what I’m talking about.”
“This is most extraordinary!” Virginia exclaimed. “How could you possibly know—unless—do you combine burglary with your newspaper work?”