“It is the correct time,” Peter said.
“Then by midnight,” Guillot continued, shaking his fist in the other’s face, “I shall have done that thing which brought me to England and I shall have disappeared. I shall have done it in spite of your watchers, in spite of your spies, in spite, even, of you, Monsieur le Baron de Grost. There is my challenge. Voila. Take it up if you will. At midnight you shall hear me laugh. I have the honor to wish you good-night!”
Peter opened the door with his own hands.
“This is excellent,” he declared. “You are now, indeed, the Monsieur Guillot of old. Almost you persuade me to take up your challenge.”
Guillot laughed derisively.
“As you please!” he exclaimed. “By midnight tonight!”
The challenge of Monsieur Guillot was issued precisely at four minutes before seven. On his departure, Peter spent the next half-hour studying certain notes and sending various telephone messages. Afterwards, he changed his clothes at the usual time and sat down to a tete-a-tete dinner with his wife. Three times during the course of the meal he was summoned to the telephone, and from each call he returned more perplexed. Finally, when the servants had left the room, he took his chair around to his wife’s side.
“Violet,” he said, “you were asking me just now about the telephone. You were quite right. These were not ordinary messages which I have been receiving. I am engaged in a little matter which, I must confess, perplexes me. I want your advice, perhaps your help.”
“I am quite ready,” she answered, smiling. “It is a long time since you gave me anything to do.”
“You have heard of Guillot?”