Betty nodded in farewell, and turning, sped lightly off down the Drive, the fear that he might follow lending wings to her feet. The broad avenue stretched straight away for miles to the northward without a curve or obstruction which would serve to screen her destination from view, but she felt that in any event she could have gone no farther.
The close confinement of her position had ill prepared her for a test of physical endurance and when she reached the gateway of home her limbs were trembling beneath her and her panting breath came in agonized strangling sobs. Reckless of the young man's possible observation she turned in between the high gates, and staggering up the side path to a little knoll ringed with low-growing holly bushes, she sank breathlessly upon a stone bench, and crouched waiting, but her solitude was undisturbed and no tread of an approaching footstep sounded upon the graveled walk. Gradually her composure returned and with the gathering of her scattered forces she remembered her employer's final warning. Whatever the future held in store, she must play the game.
Herbert Ross had watched the girl until she disappeared within the gates, then slowly proceeded on his way. The surprise in their meeting had been mutual, but he made no attempt to fathom the reason for her presence in the neighborhood. His thoughts were busied with the cause of her evident terror. From whom or what was she flying when chance precipitated her into his arms?
She had recovered herself quickly, but her attempt to dissemble had been vain. The detective had read aright the hunted, cowering look in her eyes. What had so changed her from the confident, self-assured young woman of a few days previous to the trembling, terrified creature who had shrunk from him in dismay and attempted so vainly to conceal her consternation?
The solution of the enigma was approaching even as he cogitated, but so unprepared was he for the revelation that it was with a distinct sensation of shock he beheld Madame Dumois coming toward him down the avenue. The full significance of the scene burst upon his brain and the momentary flash of self-disgust for his stupidity was followed by the exultation of achievement. He had solved the case!
With the slenderest of clues to work upon and the most difficult of clients to handle; blindfold, knowing nothing of his subject's past or her relations with the stern old woman who was so relentlessly running her to earth, without even a name to guide him, he had found her! Nothing remained but to produce her and take his fee.
Then, unaccountably, the girl's face, as he had last seen it, rose before him, frightened, appealing in its very helplessness and despair. What would be her fate at the hands of his grim client? She was so young, with a sufficiently long future before her in which to atone for any mistake of the past. He shrank even in thought from the suggestion of crime in connection with her, and for the first time in his professional career he hesitated in the face of his duty.
And the scar! If indeed it was a birthmark as he had concluded, why had Madame Dumois not only eliminated it from her description, but deliberately denied its existence when he himself had referred to it? What had Betty Shaw to fear from her?
If he could only have felt assured of his client's motive in seeking out the girl, his course would have been clearly defined, but his experience forced him to conclude it could only be in a spirit of retribution for some real or fancied offense. If she were trying to find a missing relative, a daughter, perhaps, who had disappeared, her anxiety would have been more marked in spite of her iron self-control, and why would the other have flown from her? There could have been no reason for her secrecy with one professionally bound to preserve her confidence, save in the incredible contingency that the young girl was a fugitive from justice.
An impulse came to him to turn and flee, even as the girl herself had done; to put off the interview until he had made up his mind to face the issue. The next moment he banished the thought resolutely and stepped forward with extended hand.