"If you had seen his face, you would have had no need to ask the question," she answered sorrowfully.
"It's the tallest story I've ever heard," he remarked. "But whether true or not, if we want to do anything for him the first step is to get him out of the hands of that old scoundrel of a father, and," he added, "I am more than ever convinced that only a woman can do that. Think it over, Miss Challys, think it over." He glanced at his watch. "Now if you will give me his address, I will be off. I have a number of things to do before returning to town."
She gave him the address. She responded heartily to his farewell, and as she stood watching him as he hastened along the path towards the quay it seemed to her that already the burden of her trouble was lightened. She trusted Flurscheim implicitly, and yet twenty-four hours previously she would have been prepared to assert that he would have been the last person in the world of whom she would have taken counsel in her distress.
Not that her mind was at rest. She merely was relieved from anxiety as regards Guy's immediate safety. As to the future there was no trace of a silver lining to the clouds. Guy and she had parted. Yet Flurscheim's words stuck in her brain. "Only a woman could help him." Only a woman!
CHAPTER XXIV
INSPECTOR KENLY CONTEMPLATES ACTION
Events were coiling themselves swiftly, and Lynton Hora at the very centre of the coil was inert, motionless, unaware of the web which was being spun about him. Indeed some of those various parties who were the actors in the events, the puppets who had been set in motion by Hora's initiative to spin the web for his own entwining, were unaware even that they were spinning such a web.
But Inspector Kenly knew. He guessed that there must have been some master mind behind Guy's exploits, and once he had fixed upon Lynton Hora as the possessor of that master mind he was a sleuth hound on the trail. Where Hora was, Kenly was not far distant. When Hora left Westminster Mansions on the night of Guy's arrival, Kenly was at his heels. He tracked him to a railway station, back from the railway station to one of the big London hotels. He did not leave the premises until Hora had retired for the night. Then he went back to Westminster Mansions and learned of Guy's arrival there. He was very curious as to the meaning of the movements of the two men. He could not watch them both, and though he longed to have followed the business through without assistance the risk had become too great. He went in haste to Scotland Yard and requisitioned the assistance of a subordinate to watch the Mansions. He himself returned to the hotel. He was still more astounded next morning when Hora returned quietly to his own abode, and was totally unable to deduce anything from the fact that Guy had left the flat at daybreak. It was so mysterious that he could not rest. He went again to the Yard and asked for another man.
"I think I am on the track of the Flurscheim gang," he explained. "It's only a case of suspicion at present, and I still have the Foreign Office business in hand."
"The Yard" was sore at its failure to solve the mystery of the stolen picture, and a dozen men would have been at the Inspector's command if he had so desired. He promised to explain later, saying that the necessity for placing his men was urgent, and so he managed to keep his information to himself. His instructions to his subordinates were simple and explicit. Unseen themselves, one was to follow Lynton Hora, the other was not to lose sight of Guy. If either of the two under surveillance attempted to leave the country he was to be detained. The warrant would be forthcoming if needed. Already the Inspector had his information drawn out. But there were three names in that information, and the third was that of Captain Marven.
His subordinates instructed in their duties, the detective hurried off to the Foreign Office. Ever since the Permanent Secretary had suggested asking Captain Marven for an explanation Kenly's mind had been busy with the idea. Though he had been horror stricken at first, the more he pondered over it, the more advantageous it seemed. Though Captain Marven's name appeared in his unsworn information, he still doubted whether the King's Messenger could be hand in glove with the Horas. If the suggested interview took place in his presence, he would be able to judge by the Captain's demeanour as to whether he was in any way implicated in the despatch business. If implicated in that, there would be every reason to suspect that he must have had a hand in the Flurscheim burglary. So he sought out the Permanent Secretary and proffered his request. It met with a ready acceptance. "Captain Marven," said the Secretary, "is next on the rota for service. If I had not employed him, the mere fact would have caused comment as well as arousing his suspicions, and I really could not have employed him while this cloud is hanging over him."