She laughed delightfully.
“Dear Mr. Pritchard,” she exclaimed, “it is a strange thought, that! If only I dared hope that some day it might come true!”
“More unlikely things, madam, are happening every hour,” the detective remarked. “The world—our little corner of it, at any rate—is full of anomalies. There might even come a time to any one of us three when liberty was more dangerous than the prison cell itself.”
He nodded carelessly to Tavernake, and with a bow to Elizabeth turned and left the room. Elizabeth remained as though turned to stone, looking after him as he descended the stairs.
“The man is a fool!” Tavernake cried, roughly.
Elizabeth shook her head and sighed.
“He is something far more ineffective,” she said. “He is just a little too clever.”
CHAPTER, XV. GENERAL DISCONTENT
Elizabeth did not at once rejoin her friends. Instead, she sank on to the low settee close to where she had been standing, and drew Tavernake down to her side. She waved her hand across at the others, who were calling for her.