“Why, I thought you were enjoying France since Mart Brattle has ceased to trouble you?” said Jack.
“So I am,” assured Merry, rising, and walking to the window, where he stood, looking out, his hands in his pockets.
As Frank stood there, he noticed on the opposite side of the wide street a man, who was lingering in a doorway. The man was dressed in black, and he looked up at the hotel in a searching way. After a little, he seemed to observe Merry at the window, and then he drew back into the doorway. There was something odd about the man’s behavior, which caused Merry to retreat from the window, but remain where he could see the doorway. After a time, the man appeared in the doorway again, and gazed up at the hotel.
Somehow, Frank felt that the fellow was a spy or shadower. For whom was he watching? Merry turned from the window, and announced that he was going out.
On the street, Frank looked around for the man in the doorway, but could see nothing of him, which caused him to wonder if he had been wrong in thinking he was a spy.
Direct to the Deux Mondes Frank went, and there he made inquiries about the dead duke. All he learned was that Laforce had retired shortly before midnight, apparently in good health, and had been found dead in the morning, the early discovery being made as his door stood slightly ajar. There were no marks of violence nor anything to indicate the man had not died a natural death. To Merry, it seemed rather strange that the duke had left his door open; and, if he had not left it open, why had it been found ajar in the morning?
Somehow, it seemed that the hand of death had opened that door. Frank pictured the grim agent of destruction creeping in on the man as he slept, and accomplishing the dread work. It was not strange that the American youth again felt a chill in his warm blood. Frank asked if there had been anything queer in the behavior of the duke previous to his death, and was told that he had seemed rather odd and moody for a few days.
Then, with all the skill he could command, Merry sought to discover if there was a taint of insanity in the Laforce blood, but no one seemed to know that such was the case. The conviction that Edmond Laforce had met death at the hands of assassins, for all that he bore no mark of violence, grew upon Frank Merriwell.
And Frank began to feel that it was his duty to solve the mystery, if possible. Fate had connected him with the remarkable tragedy, and it would be cowardly not to accept the commission placed on his shoulders by chance. As Merry turned to leave the hotel, he noticed a man, who had been lingering near while he asked the questions. In a moment, he recognized the man in black, whom he had seen in the doorway opposite his hotel.
On the street, Frank walked briskly to the first corner. As he turned into the next street, he gave a quick backward glance. The shadower in black was coming!