Westerham himself was baffled, and yet he had ascertained one thing which was likely to be of infinite use to him. He had discovered that there was, without doubt, a definite connection between the game which Melun was playing and Bagley's attempt to steal Lady Kathleen's diamonds.
That was sufficient for the night.
Still his impatience, or perhaps one had better say his desire, to get at the actual facts prompted him to take Melun into Walter's Hotel and subject him to a close cross-examination.
Melun, however, had recovered from his perturbation of the night before, and, moreover, was apparently intoxicated by the effect of rubbing shoulders with the great ones of the earth at the Prime Minister's reception. Therefore he was in a far less tractable frame of mind than was pleasant to Westerham. The captain, indeed, had got back that self-possession and cool audacity of which he had made such good use on the Gigantic. Westerham realised this at once, and at the outset dealt very gently with Melun.
“Don't you think,” he began softly, “that you had better make a clean breast of it?”
“Not at all,” answered Melun. “I have no desire to shock you, and a man who is disturbed by the yelling of a couple of girls is not likely to take what I might tell him in a particularly cool manner.”
Westerham's bright, sea-green eyes hardened.
“I have told you,” he said in a more menacing tone, “that if you want to indulge in villainy you have got to keep women out of it. Now, whatever your scheme may be, it cannot be of very particular magnitude unless it has to do with the Premier. I fail to see where Lady Kathleen comes into the matter at all.”
“Perhaps you do,” Melun answered, “but then you are unacquainted with the details, and I don't propose to enlighten you. I agreed to betray the secrets of the prison house, or rather to let you see how my friends work, but I did not agree to tell you of every piece of business in which I was engaged.”
“On this occasion, I fancy,” said Westerham, “you will find it convenient to unburden your mind.”