“And as such——”
“Wait; I haven’t quite got to that yet. During that Paris experience of hers, to which I just now referred, when she was an aid to my friend Alexis Turnieff, the father of my military aide, he was killed. It was said that he shot himself. Circumstances surrounding the affair upheld that view of the matter; but those who knew the man personally knew then, and know now, that he was not the man to have taken his own life. He was the soul of honor and uprightness. A large fortune in cash and jewels disappeared at the time of his death, and was stolen—if it can be said that things are stolen when they are taken by the people to whom they really belong.
“But that money and the jewels had been forfeited to the throne. Ah, well! That is political history, and has nothing to do with the things I am telling you; only I wished to say that the jewels and money probably found its way to just the hands where Russia did not wish it to go.
“Now, Mr. Carter, I have always believed, and I believe now, that ‘The Leopard’ caused the death of Prince Turnieff, if she did not actually shoot him herself—and I more than half believe that.”
“And you are attempting to tell me that young Turnieff believes that view of the case also.”
“I am attempting to tell you more than that. What I started to say was that ever since Countess Narnine appeared here, Turnieff has been a devotee at her shrine. He has fluttered around her like a moth around a candle flame. He has been in her train constantly. He goes nightly to her house; or, when he is not there, he is an attendant at functions where he knows she will be present.”
“Do you mean to tell me that he is in love with her?”
“No; not unless love and hate are akin. He is bent on vengeance for the untimely death of his father. That is why he pursues her.”
“Then how do you find a cause for suspicion against him in this matter, because of his intimacy with the countess?”