He had taken off the gloves that covered his hands when I saw him from the window. He waved John to a chair with a hand that should have worn a ruby ring. Automatically I looked for it. It was not there.
John answered him, smiling, and seeming to have lost his weakness. “Perhaps a little sooner than any of us wished,” he suggested.
“I am sorry you ’ave suffered a wound,” the Black Ghost went on, “and yet I am very glad that it brought you ’ere. I am sure Doctor Carlo ’as given you the best of medical care, and I ’ope you are not in pain.”
He seemed very much concerned, yet I would not allow myself to be deceived. He was a bandit. We were to be disposed of by him, and though he was as pleasant as ever, I felt that something was wrong. It was not that he seemed displeased with us, quite the contrary. But he seemed changed. John noticed it, too. He was staring at him thoughtfully. The accent was the same, but the voice, for all its huskiness, was more debonair. I argued that a sudden success had wrought the change. That was bad for us, in one way, yet it might be that we could count on him now to be more magnanimous to two American citizens. Still, who would ever know anything about it if he were not?
“You ’ave escaped twice from my—er—our—’ospitality. They say the number three is symbolic of good luck.”
“A singular recurrence of good luck, certainly,” said John.
“Exactly. The Black Ghost brings good luck to ’is friends. Though you ’ave opposed yourselves to me, I feel that you would like to be my friends. Is that not so?”
“That might be true if we knew you better,” John said.
The Black Ghost laughed. “That is what I mean,” he said. “I believe you gentlemen wish to go to Herrovosca to see Queen Yolanda. At least that is the way I interpreted the news of the ’ole between your room and that occupied by a certain lady. Now, it may be a surprise to you if I withdraw my objection to your going there. As prisoners, gentlemen, you are very troublesome. I think I would rather ’ave you for friends. If you will give me your word of honor to say nothing of what you ’ave learned of the politics of the Visichich family, or of the location of the castle in the mountains, you may go to Herrovosca. Except, I ask you to do me a favor.”
“And what sort of favor can we do you?” I asked, feeling that it would probably prove a joker.