"Then mademoiselle has been most cleverly tricked, for the men to whom you handed the proceeds of the robbery were certainly not agents of police! They were impostors!"
CHAPTER XI
DESCRIBES A MEETING AND ITS SEQUEL
His words staggered me.
"Not agents of police!" I cried, dumbfounded. "Why, they were fully cognisant of every detail of the affair. It was the Director of the Casino who presented them."
"Then Monsieur le Directeur was tricked, just as you were," he answered gravely. "You say you actually received from the hand of someone who wore an effective disguise the sum stolen from the unfortunate monsieur? Kindly explain the whole circumstances of your meeting, and what passed between you."
"My dear Carmela," exclaimed Ulrica, "this fresh complication is absolutely bewildering! You not only danced and chatted with the murderer, but you were the victim of a very clever plot."
"That is quite certain," observed the officer. "The two individuals to whom mademoiselle innocently gave the notes upon representation that they were agents of police were evidently well acquainted with the murderer's intention to give up the proceeds of the robbery, and had watched you narrowly all through the evening. But kindly give us exact details."
In obedience to his demand, I recounted the whole story. It seemed to me incredible that the two men who had sent for me were bogus detectives, yet such was the actual fact, as was shown later when the Director of the Casino explained how they had come to him, telling him that they were police agents from Marseilles, and had ordered him to send for me, as they wished to interrogate me regarding the affair of the "Grand Hotel." Such, he declared, was their air of authority that he never for a moment doubted that they were genuine officers of police.
My statement held the two men absolutely speechless. I told them of the strange appointment in London made by the man with the owl's face, of the curious warning he had given me, and of the manner in which he had presented me with the sum won at the tables by the murdered man.