She inspected me steadily for a full minute, then that almost imperceptible smile edged her lips again and she gave me my congé with a gentle nod.
XVII
MORE MYSTERY
I discovered Smith sitting on the rim of the fountain all alone in the dusk.
"Good heavens!" I blurted out, "was any man ever so completely entangled in the web of intrigue as I am? Plot, counterplot, camouflage, mystery—I'm in the very middle of the whole mess!
"I don't know who anybody is or what they're up to! Who is Thusis? Who is Clelia? Who is Josephine Vannis? Raoul? The Countess Manntrapp? And who are you, for that matter? I don't know! I don't pretend to guess."
"What's the trouble?" he asked, amused.
"Trouble! I don't know. There's all kinds of trouble lying around. I'm in several varieties of it. Where is the traveling circus?"
"In Tsar Ferdie's apartments."
"Probably conspiring," I added.