He went into the bedroom where the dead man lay and shut the door with a bang.
Westerham, without even troubling to gather together his different effects, rang the bell and ordered another room. But, as may be imagined, he did not sleep much; indeed, he sat and smoked throughout the entire night, trying to account for the real motive which underlay the murder.
Slowly, too, he began to see that he had underrated Melun's resources and fiendish cleverness; for this was evidently Melun's work.
Yet it was difficult to account for Melun's presence in his club at the moment of the perpetration of the crime. Melun must have acted with almost superhuman swiftness and ingenuity.
Piecing the affair together as best he could, Westerham came to the conclusion that after the men had left Limehouse Melun must have purchased Crow's adherence out and out; and this more than ever puzzled Westerham to understand what the amazing mystery in which he was entangled meant. He could well believe now that the stake was even greater than the quarter of a million the captain himself had mentioned.
Then he also became convinced that not only had he underestimated Melun's mental capacity, but that he had underrated his physical hardihood; for by this murder, unless he had in some subtle way pre-armed himself with a triumphant excuse, the captain had automatically cut himself adrift from the rougher spirits of his gang.
This reflection led to a great anxiety on Westerham's part, for he realised that if Melun could afford to take this step the crisis must be close at hand. And it was an exceedingly uncomfortable and hair-raising thought when he remembered the threat pinned to the dead man's chest.
“The girl may be the next.”
The words haunted him more than Kathleen's own extraordinary statement. He wondered impotently when the problems which beset him would cease to multiply.
The whole situation seemed to have a double edge, for while he rejoiced to think that the crisis must now be close at hand, he was correspondingly terrified by the thought that the crisis might involve, not only the safety, but even the life of Lady Kathleen.