"Enough!" I said. "Had it not been for Stevens, I should have been lying down there with the earth over me."
"I was afraid I shouldn't get my fare," said the taxi-driver, simply. "I didn't know you, sir, and I had four-and-sixpence on the clock—a lot to me."
"And a good job, too," declared Rayner. "If it had only been a bob fare you might have gone back to Acton and left Mr. Vidal to his fate."
"Ah! I quite agree," Stevens said. "It was only by mere chance, as I had promised my wife to be home early that night, it being our wedding-day, and we had two or three friends coming in."
"Then your wedding anniversary saved my life, Stevens!" I exclaimed.
"Well, if you put it that way, sir, I suppose it really did," he replied with a laugh. "But this preparation of a grave is a surprise to me. They evidently got it ready for the young lady—eh?"
I paused. My blood rose against the crafty old Gregory and his associates. They knew of Lola's friendship with me, and they had deliberately plotted the poor girl's death. They had actually dug a grave ready to receive her!
Within myself I made a solemn vow that I would be even with the man whom the mysterious Egisto had addressed as "Master."
Surely I should have a strange and interesting story to relate to my friend Jonet in Paris.