"I felt that I was being watched and tested, and although I was on my guard I came very near betraying myself more than once.
"When at last they were convinced that I was as stupid as I tried to appear, I was sent on my first errand to collect money from another victim. Looking back now, I can scarcely realize the mood in which I accepted such a horrible task, but my own suffering and the threatened disgrace to my father had hardened me to the troubles of others. That initial experience was at the opera, and a man in the next box handed me an envelope; he had a round, plump face and a little downy mustache, and a woman companion spoke of him as 'Toddie.'"
"J. Todhunter Crane!" exploded McCormick, interrupting for the first time. "They had him on a fraudulent government contract and could have got to him for a huge sum in time! But go on, please."
She told of her meeting with the beautiful golden-haired woman in the art shop and her response to Herbert's advertisement for an Egyptian translator. During this portion of her recital the young gentleman in question carefully avoided the eyes of his chief and the latter forebore to interrupt again, but when the girl told of her fruitless visit to the Café de Luxe and subsequent encounter with the blonde lady of the art shop at the Hotel Rochefoucauld, he could not contain himself.
"Mrs. Haddon Cheever!" he ejaculated. "Young wife of a rich, jealous, old husband, and the Atterbury crew got hold of a bunch of silly letters she wrote to that Willie-boy who tried to stall you in the Carnival Room. Ten thousand cold she handed over to you in the hotel!"
"I had another disquieting experience on the same afternoon at the Café de Luxe. The girl from whose house I returned home on the night of the storm came up and greeted me, and I was obliged to cut her, fearing some spy would hear her call me by my own name. She was one of my most intimate friends, and I felt ashamed.
"I had other worries, too. The man Wolvert, whom you have just placed in custody, had begun to annoy me with his attentions and would not be snubbed. Then I seemed to be forever dodging people I knew! On my second visit to the museum, Herbert introduced me to a dear old professor whom I had met previously in Cairo, where I was studying under the great Mallory. He remembered me, in spite of the birthmark, and he was suspicious enough to trap me later with a papyrus I had seen, but I admitted nothing.
"My search for the incriminating documents continued whenever an opportunity presented itself, but I seemed no nearer finding them. One night I came face to face with Wolvert in the library, but I reached Mrs. Atterbury first with a plausible story and she believed me.
"The next place to which I was sent to receive the blackmail was the very last I could have anticipated—a church. It was the aristocratic St. Jude's, on Brinsley Square, and the envelope containing the money was presented to me on the collection plate!"
She described the event in detail and when she had finished the detective asked eagerly: