“My darling, let me get you some wine!” exclaimed Douglas in distress.
“No, no, sit down!” Eleanor clutched his coat. “Don’t pay any attention to me; I’ll be all right in a minute.”
“Fugi has disappeared,” went on Brett, after a brief silence. “I think he overheard our conversation here this afternoon, for Nicodemus says he was loitering in the hall. On searching his room at your house, Miss Thornton, I found evidence, through certain papers, that he had been in your uncle’s pay.”
“He thought it wiser to bolt,” commented Fred Lane. “I have no doubt he knew more of affairs than we are giving him credit for.”
“It’s a great pity, Miss Thornton, that you kept silent so long,” said Brett. “If I had known that Senator Carew spent the evening with you, and also about the awning, I would have cleared up this mystery sooner.”
“I should have spoken.” Eleanor looked so troubled that Douglas sat down on the arm of her chair and took her hand gently in his. As his strong grasp tightened she formed a sudden resolution. “There is another reason for my silence which I have not told you; wait a moment,” and she rose and hurriedly left the room.
The men smoked in silence until her return. “The room is very dark, won’t you light another burner, Douglas?” she asked, on her return. She waited until her wish had been complied with, then, as the men seated themselves near her, she began her story. “On Tuesday morning, just after I had heard of Senator Carew’s death, I received a cardboard box containing jewels. That in itself bewildered me, but I was astounded by the message written in an unknown hand which I found on a card inside the box.” As she spoke she opened the small box which she had just brought into the room with her. “Here is the card; read the message aloud, Douglas.”
“‘The appointment was not kept. Well done.’”
Douglas laid the card on the desk and the three men looked at each other in amazement.
“The message frightened me horribly,” continued Eleanor. “I realized that some one must have thought me guilty of the Senator’s death—and approved of it. The mystery of it appalled me. I did not know whom to take into my confidence; so I put the jewels into my strong box and said nothing, hoping that I would be able to ferret out the mystery by myself.”