“I suppose so,” Millard mumbled shamefacedly. “Anyhow, they’ve got him now.”
“What!” Storm sat back in his chair.
“Fact. I’ve just come from Police Headquarters.” Millard nodded, visibly cheered by the impression his announcement had made. “It has been established beyond a doubt that he is on board the Alsace en route for France. He’ll be arrested the moment they reach Havre.”
Storm’s brain whirled, yet he strove mightily to command himself. Millard must not know, must not guess! Could it be after all that luck had not deserted him? Hope had died so utterly that he found it difficult to believe this sudden turn of fortune.
“How can they be sure?” he stammered. “There may be some mistake.”
“Not a chance!” Millard, his equanimity restored, chattered on. “His movements have been traced from the moment he left the hotel until he walked up the gangplank, and they’ve got him dead to rights. Nervy of him to go back to France when he knew the Government was out after him, wasn’t it? I suppose he banked on that; that they would never dream he would dare to return. He’s under a different name, of course, and all that, but the detectives have been in wireless communication with the captain of the Alsace and there isn’t a loophole of escape for him. He is cornered like a rat in a trap and a good job, too!”
The garrulity of his companion had given Storm time to collect himself. He must learn all that he could and yet not seem too eager. He shrugged.
“His cleverness didn’t get him far, did it?” he remarked with elaborate carelessness. “Let’s see; the Alsace sailed three days ago, if I am not mistaken.”
“Four,” the other corrected him. “She won’t reach port for another three days, however; traveling slow, for there has been a report of some floating mines having been sighted in her path. It is just a wild rumor, of course; the sweepers gathered them in pretty thoroughly after the war. Don’t know what they’ll do about extraditing him, for both countries want him badly. The main thing his victims want, I imagine, is to get their money back.”
In this Storm concurred heartily but in silence. After a pause he observed, still in that detached, bored tone: