“More, my dear Teddy,” the girl replied. “But since I saw you in Chicago four months ago I’ve had a very narrow squeak. I was nearly pinched by old Shenstone from New York. Dicky Diamond gave me the tip, and I cleared out from my hotel just in time. Had to leave all my trunks and eight thousand dollars’ worth of jewelry behind me. And now I dare not claim them, for the police have seized them. Somebody gave me away, but I don’t know who. Wouldn’t I like to know—just! You bet I’d get even on them!”
“A good job you were warned,” said Madame. “Dicky was over here last June. I spent the evening with him at Prince’s.”
“He’s over here now. Waiting for me in Liverpool. I’ve got my passage booked back for to-morrow night, so if the hue and cry is raised I shall have left. I’m in the passengers’ list as Mrs. George C. Meredith, wife of the well-known Chicago stock-broker. See my ring!” she laughed, holding up her hand in the semi-darkness. “Ain’t it a real fine one? And you are my mother, Madame! See?”
“But where are we going?” asked Duperré’s wife.
“Going to make an unexpected call upon old Bethmeyer,” she replied.
“Bethmeyer!” I exclaimed. “What, old Sir Joseph Bethmeyer, the millionaire whom they call the mystery man of Europe, the man who is said to have a finger in every financial pie all over Europe?”
“Yes, I guess it’s the same man,” replied our sprightly companion. “He lives at Frenbury Park, a splendid place between Hindhead and Farnham.”
What, I wondered, could they possibly want with Sir Joseph Bethmeyer, the man who had, it was said, been behind the ex-Emperor Carl in his endeavor to regain the throne of the Hapsburgs, and who was declared to be immensely wealthy, though the source of his great riches could never be discovered. I knew him from the photographs so frequently in the papers, a stout, full-bearded, Teutonic-looking man, who claimed Swedish nationality, and who frequently gave large sums to charity, apparently in order to propitiate the British Government, who were more than suspicious of his oft-repeated good intentions.
At Houston’s suggestion we stopped at a small hotel in Godalming, and there had supper, for it was yet early, and the American girl had dropped a hint that we should not go near Frenbury till past midnight. As we sat at table in a private room, I saw that she was exceedingly handsome, with a pair of coal-black eyes and a shrewd, alert expression, but her American accent was not always pronounced. Indeed, when she liked, she could conceal it altogether.
She wore a fine diamond bracelet, her only ornament. Yet during our meal Houston whispered something to her, whereupon she half drew from beneath her fur coat something that glinted in the light, and I saw it was a very serviceable-looking revolver.