She was in time to see Meriaz walk calmly into the library, through the open door of which she had seen Leith, and then the door was closed upon them.
She hurried swiftly through the hall and lifted a portière at the back end, through which she passed into the adjoining room, separated from the library only by a Japanese portière. The light was out in the room that screened her, and was burning brilliantly in the room that contained them, so that she could see and hear everything without fear of being seen.
"What has brought you here?" she heard Leith demand, indignantly, of the repulsive-looking Mexican who stood before him.
It was rather a change from his shrinking and the bold manner of the Mexican when they had been presented in the drawing-room, and she listened breathlessly for the answer.
"To see you!" returned Meriaz, his black, cunning eyes fixed greedily upon Leith's face.
"What for?" demanded Leith, towering over the short, bulky Mexican in his majestic rage.
"You know perfectly well," answered Meriaz, with a hateful grin. "I've come to find out the whole of the situation that made you so anxious that none of the story of young Winthrop's death should ever get to this section of the country."
"And you have found out?" questioned Leith, proudly.
"Oh, yes! You know me well enough to know that it doesn't take long to do that. You are in love with Miss de Barryos, the fiancé of the murdered man."
"May I ask who gave you this information?"