“Ah! yes,” replied the girl. “Of course. I never thought of that! Father has been to Madrid several times of late.”
I feared to tell her what I suspected of the secret visit of that handsome Spanish woman, or of how we had been observed at the Unicorn at Ripon.
On that same day Duperré returned. He had been abroad, for when I met him at the station I noticed that his luggage bore fresh labels of the Palace Hotel, at Brussels, and some railway destinations. At ten o’clock that night, after Lola had retired to bed, I was called to consult with Rayne and Duperré, who were smoking together in the billiard-room. Duperré had evidently related to him the result of his mysterious journeyings, and Rayne seemed in an unusually good humor.
“Sit down, George, and listen,” he said. “We have a little piece of important business to transact—something that will bring in big money. Duperré will explain.”
Vincent turned, and looking at me through the haze of his cigarette-smoke, said:
“There’s not much to explain, George. You have only to act on Rayne’s instructions. The matter does not concern you as, after all, you’re only a pawn in this merry little game which will do no harm to anyone——”
“Only to old Lloyd,” I interrupted.
“To his pocket, perhaps,” Duperré laughed.
“Frankly, you mean to rob him, as you have so many others.”