It was not customary for Sir John to come down from his study to enjoy the ladies’ company after dinner, but on this evening he made an exception to his rule. He found his wife and ward reading, one on each side of the fireplace. Lady Maxell looked up when her husband came in.
“Here is a curious story, John,” she said. “I think it must be an American story, about a woman who robbed her husband and the police refused to arrest her.”
“There’s nothing curious about that,” said the lawyer, “in law a wife cannot rob her husband or a husband his wife.”
“So that if you came to my Honolulu estate and stole my pearls,” she said banteringly, “I could not have you arrested.”
“Except for walking in my sleep!” he said smilingly, and they both laughed together.
He had never seen her so amiable, and for the first time that day—it had been a very trying and momentous day—he had his misgivings. She, with the memory of her good day’s work, the excellent terms she had arranged with the skipper of the Lord Lawrence, due to leave Southampton for Cadiz at daylight the next morning, had no misgivings at all, especially when she thought of a key she had placed under her pillow. She had had the choice of two boats, the Lord Lawrence and the Saffi, but the Saffi’s voyage would have been a long one, and its port of destination might hold discomfort which she had no wish to experience.
The household retired at eleven o’clock, and it was past midnight before Sadie Maxell heard her husband’s door close, and half an hour later before the click of the switch told her that his light had been extinguished.
He was a ready sleeper, but she gave him yet another half-hour before she opened the door of her bedroom and stepped out into the black corridor. She moved noiselessly towards the study, her only fear being that the baronet had locked the door before he came out. But this fear was not well founded, and the door yielded readily to her touch. She was dressed, and carried only a small attaché case filled with the bare necessities for the voyage.
She pushed the catch of her electric lamp, located the safe and opened it with no difficulty. She found herself surprisingly short of breath, and her heart beat at such a furious rate that she thought it must be audible to everybody in the house. The envelope with the money lay at the bottom of the others, and she transferred its contents to her attaché case in a few seconds.
Then her heart stood still. . . .