"Then what becomes of your plans?" asked the Permanent Secretary. He could see that the detective had not revealed all that was in his mind.
"Mr. Flurscheim wants to get his Greuze back undamaged," said the detective slowly, "and he also wants to punish the man who stole it. I shall see him directly he arrives in town, and I think I can make it clear to him that he had better say nothing until I consider the time ripe for action."
"There's only one thing more," remarked the Permanent Secretary. "Suppose I think it necessary to ask Captain Marven for an explanation?"
The detective jumped to his feet with a look of horror on his face. "Good heavens! Sir Everard," he exclaimed, "you would spoil everything. You won't do it?"
The Permanent Secretary laughed.
"You may make your mind easy, Kenly," he observed. "I'm too much of a sportsman for that, I hope."
CHAPTER XX
GUY'S LAST THEFT
While Inspector Kenly was hastening to London events at Whitsea were shaping themselves to the bewilderment of a number of the inhabitants of that pleasant little yachting resort. There was electricity in the air afflicting everyone with a vague disquietude. Meriel, thinking over Guy's wild outburst after his passionate declaration of love, felt a strange dread of what the day should bring forth. Guy, fearing the result of the confession he had promised to make, could see no sun behind the gathering clouds. Mrs. Marven, noticing a new-born constraint between the two young people, began to think that she had misread the signs which had seemed confidently to predict a love-match. Captain Marven, less dubious on this point, felt only vaguely uneasy. He therefore decided that the electricity was not produced by mental disturbance, but was purely atmospheric.
"There is thunder in the air," he declared, and counselled the members of his household not to get far away from home.
But on the physical horizon there was no cloud. Guy, wishing to be alone once more with Meriel, proposed that they should bring the Witch home, and Meriel, fearless of the sun and longing for an end to her suspense, acceded to the suggestion.