We left him at the door of his hotel, undertaking to meet him in the rooms at nine and show him every detail of our plan, so that we might have the benefit of his final advice on any possible weak points.
“There is, of course, the chance,” I observed to Brentin, “of his going off at once to the police, and getting them to be present on Friday night as well, ex majori cautelâ.”
“Oh, he won’t do that! We’ve told him no lies at present.”
“None at any rate that he has discovered.”
“The same thing!—and if we say Saturday, he probably believes we mean it. He won’t go to the police till the very last moment; he wouldn’t go then if only there were any way of managing the business by himself.”
“And our ultimate arrest, now that he knows us all?”
“Why, sir, that will be the affair of the authorities here; that is, of course, the chief risk we have now to run. My own notion, however, always has been that, if only for fear of advertising our success too widely, and suggesting the scheme to others, the Casino Company will put up with their loss, just as though we had legitimately won the boodle at play.”
“Let us hope so!” I said, and parted from him with a warm grasp of the hand.
Then I went down to the Condamine, and signalled for the Amaranth boat. We had left Lucy on board all day, for fear of her running up against Bailey Thompson on shore, and so arousing his suspicions by her presence. As for old Crage’s finding means to let him know what, in a fit of temper, he had blurted out, that I didn’t think altogether likely; in the first place, he would probably be afraid; and in the second, he would believe Lucy had by this time warned us and the whole affair was off. So I spent a very happy hour with dear Lucy on board, finding her sewing in a very bewitching tea-gown of my sister’s, and, going back to the hotel, discovered Teddy outside in a considerable state of alarm and excitement. He had just seen Thompson leaving the hotel, parting from Mrs. Wingham at the door.
“Oh, Vincent!” he cried, “it’s not too late; we’d better hook it, we had really!”—and other terrified absurdities—the fact being, no doubt, that Thompson had merely come up to see the old lady and find out from her whether she knew if Saturday really was the day, or if we were by any chance trying to put him off the scent.