“Well?” asked Challas, a few moments later, unable to repress his excitement any longer. “Do you make anything out of it?”
The old man was silent. He was carefully studying the Hebrew characters he had written down.
“Yes!” he gasped. “It is the secret—the great secret!” And he started up, exclaiming, “At last! at last—thanks to fräulein here—we have the key!”
“And we can actually read the cipher?” cried Challas.
“Most certainly,” responded the old scholar. “The secret is ours! Marvellous, how Griffin discovered it.”
“Confound Griffin!” exclaimed Jim Jannaway. “We have to thank Laura, here, for our success! She ought to be well rewarded.”
“And so she shall,” declared the man, whom the girl knew as “Mr Murray.”
“It’s late to-night, and we want Erich to get on at once with the decipher. Besides, the young lady, no doubt, wishes to get back home. Bring her to me to-morrow, or next day—and she shall be well rewarded.”
“Thank you very much, sir,” was the silly girl’s gratified reply, as she looked triumphant into the face of the cunning man who had declared his love for her.
The truth was that, having obtained that most valuable information, the trio wanted to get rid of her as soon as possible. Therefore, with excuses that the household at Pembridge Gardens would be suspicious if she returned too late, they bundled her almost unceremoniously outside, Jim hailing a hansom for her, paying the man, and telling him to drive to Notting Hill Gate Station.