'Rest easy,' I answered him. 'The villain will at once take measures to learn the truth about you, and when he knows that you are not lying somewhere on a cold slab awaiting recognition, he will know that his matrimonial game is up,' I took a sidewise glance at Lossing as I spoke the next words, 'and that one fortune at least has slipped through his fingers.'
His eyes, sombre and proud, at once turned slowly toward me as I spoke.
'Masters,' he said, 'I wish to heaven June Jenrys were as poor—as poor as I am!'
To this I had no answer ready, and we walked on for a short time in silence. Then suddenly he stopped short.
'Masters,' he asked, 'what was it that fell when I went into the smoke, like an idiot?'
'A piece of timber with a burning rag fluttering from it. A coat thrown off by one of those poor fellows. Just the bait Voisin wanted,' I replied.
CHAPTER XXX.
'IT SHALL NOT BE ALL SUSPENSE.'
Since the coming of Mr. Trent, who had secured rooms next door to the house occupied by Miss Ross and her niece, it had become my habit to pass an hour, more or less, in Miss Jenrys' parlours each day in the afternoon or evening, as was most convenient, and often, besides Mr. Trent, and of late Miss O'Neil, Lossing made one of the party; for he had come to know as much, almost, as any one of us concerning Gerald Trent's strange absence.