"I tell you you can't deceive me—an' you won't deceive me." It was the voice of Murray Olivant, loud and aggressive. And the voice of Dawkins replied to him.
"I tell you the girl has been spirited away. I've come here now in the hope of hearing something about her; perhaps that rascally servant of yours knows something—the fellow Tinman. On my solemn word, Olivant—"
"Oh, be quiet!"
I slipped back into the room to wait for them. Murray Olivant strode in first, and looked at me with a scowl; looked past me at Jervis Fanshawe, who had risen from the bed. "Well—plotters and schemers—what's the move now?" he demanded. "Is there any one here at all I can believe or trust?" He looked round on the three of us fiercely enough. "Dawkins here has her, and then he has not; you, Fanshawe, can do great things, but you don't do them; Tinman threatens and boasts, and does nothing. I suppose you think you can play with me just as you please, eh? Will no one speak?"
"I tell you again, Olivant, that I have not got the girl," said Dawkins. "I only came here in the hope to find her; I've been tricked, just as I tried to trick you. If I knew where she was, shouldn't I try to bluff the thing a bit, and get some money out of you?"
"I believe you would," retorted Olivant slowly. Then he swung round to me. "Well, Tinman, and what do you know?"
"Nothing," I replied. "I have not seen the lady at all."
"Why should she come here?" asked Fanshawe, in a quiet voice. I confess I had been expecting a totally different answer from him, and I began to wonder if, after all, I had misjudged the man. His face was a mask, behind which even the deadly fear that he had shown was hidden.
"Well, I trust you, at any rate, Fanshawe," said Olivant, "because I believe you know who's your friend, and who's likely to help you most in this world. This seems to rest with you, Dawkins," he went on, turning to his friend, "and I shan't forget to pay you for it, though not quite in the coin you expected. I'm going home; God help any one of you that plots against me again. You, Tinman, can walk with me; I believe you have some fears as to my safety," he added, with a grin.