"I want you to notice that man who has just gone by—the one smoking the fag-end of a cigar in a holder," she whispered, with a gesture towards the stream of passengers passing and repassing between the rows of chairs.
Beaumanoir's gaze followed her indication to an insignificant little figure in a brown covert-coat and tweed cap.
"Yes. What of him?" he asked. He had not spoken to this passenger, but now that attention was called to him he had an idea that the fellow had loomed largely during the last few days.
"That man is watching you, Mr. Hanbury," replied Leonie with conviction. "I wonder you haven't observed it yourself. Whenever you are talking he hangs about trying to listen; when you are on deck he is on deck; if you go below, he goes below. If you were a fugitive from justice, and he a detective, he couldn't shadow you more closely."
The Duke winced inwardly.
"I am not a fugitive from justice," he said, with the mental addition of "yet." He could not tell this laughing maiden that the man was probably spying on him in the interest, not of justice, but of crime—to see that he was true to a pledge to place forged bonds; for now that he had been put on his guard he had no doubt that his pretty informant was right. The stranger occupied the cabin next to him, and was always hovering near him in the smoking-room, unobtrusively but persistently.
Thanking the girl for her warning in a careless tone that implied that he had no reason to be anxious, he changed the subject. But before he turned in that night he made it his business to ascertain from his bedroom steward the name of his next-door neighbor, which proved to be Marker.
"Probably Mr. Marker's functions are confined to espionage. If that is a sample of the sort of bravo to be employed should I kick over the traces, I haven't much to fear," he reflected, as he switched off the electric light and composed himself to dream of Leonie Sherman.
[CHAPTER III—A Task-master in Goggles]
The next morning the St. Paul arrived at Southampton, but Beaumanoir contrived to secure a seat in the same compartment of the boat-train, and his parting with his new friends was therefore deferred till they reached Waterloo.