"My advice to you is to hold your tongue and keep silent."
"But if I am traced?" stammered Basil.
"I shall say nothing," said Mallow, "and Jennings has dropped the case. I shall get the check from Hale, and you must go abroad. I believe you are innocent."
"Oh, thank you—thank you—"
"But you are a scoundrel for all that. When I get you sent abroad and marry your sister, neither she nor I will have anything to do with you. And if you come back to England, look out."
CHAPTER XXI
AN EXPERIMENT
Next day Cuthbert received a letter from Jennings. It intimated that Maraquito wished to see him that evening. "If you will call at nine o'clock," wrote the detective, "she will be alone. The police have decided to close the gambling-house, and she is making preparations to leave England. I understand she has something to tell you in connection with the death of Miss Loach, which it is as well you should hear. A confession on her part may save you a lot of trouble in the future."
Mallow hesitated to obey this summons. He thought it was strange that Maraquito should get the detective to write to him, as he knew she mistrusted the man. And, apart from this, he had no wish to see Senora Gredos again. Things were now smooth between him and Juliet—comparatively so—and it would not do to rouse the girl's jealousy. Maraquito was a dangerous woman, and if he paid her a solitary visit, he might fall into some snare which she was quite capable of laying. Such was her infatuation, that he knew she would stop at nothing to gain her ends.