“Well, I am surprised,” said Dolly, defiantly. “And I’m sure, somehow, that he’s all right. I think he was just as badly fooled as the rest of us. Mr. Holmes probably wants us to think as badly of him as possible, so that, if he should try to help us, we wouldn’t trust him.”
“I wish I could believe that, Dolly. But the evidence against him is too strong, I’m afraid. Hush, we mustn’t talk. Here is Mr. Holmes coming back. I don’t want him to think that we’re afraid–it would please him too much.”
With Mr. Holmes, as he came toward them, was a woman in servant’s garb, middle aged, and sour in her appearance.
“This woman will attend to you, Miss Mercer,” he said. “She will do whatever you tell her–unless it should happen to conflict with the orders she has from me. But she won’t talk to you about me, or about this place because she knows that if she does I will find out about it, and she will have reason to regret it.”
“I’m very much pleased by one thing, Mr. Holmes,” said Eleanor. “You’ve shown yourself in your true colors at last. I suppose you understand that when I get back to the city I shall see to it that everyone knows the truth about you. I don’t think you will find yourself welcome in the homes of any decent people after I tell what I know.”
“I’m sorry, Miss Mercer,” he said. “Of course you must do what you think best. But it really won’t do any good. I could do things a great deal worse than this, and still, with the money I happen to have, people would keep on fawning on me, and pestering me with their attentions and their invitations as much as ever.”
“Perhaps you’re right, but I intend to find out. May I ask how long you intend to keep me here as a prisoner?”
“You are my guest, Miss Mercer, not my prisoner. Please don’t act as if I were as great a villain as that. Losing your temper will not improve matters in any way, you know–really it won’t. As for your question, I think Bessie and Zara will be in the quite competent care of their old friend Silas Weeks by noon to-morrow and then there will be no further reason for keeping you here.”
“Then, unless you are remarkably quick in getting out of the country, Mr. Holmes, you ought to be under arrest for kidnapping by to-morrow night.”
Holmes laughed.