FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151  
152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   >>   >|  
e tip of my tongue to reveal the suspicions I had of the great financier, but I refrained, because I could see that my companion held De Gex in high esteem as a friend and financial mainstay of his country. A few moments later I reverted to the possibility of the arrest of Despujol, for if arrested he might betray De Gex as the person who had paid him to place those infected pins in my room. In such case my story would be heard and investigated. But the Chief of Police shook his head dubiously. "I fear that he has again gone into safe hiding--up in the mountains somewhere, without a doubt," he replied. "It was an act of considerable daring to come boldly to Madrid and stay at your hotel when he knows full well the hue-and-cry for him is raised everywhere, and that there is actually ten thousand pesetas offered as reward for his capture." "Someone may betray him," I suggested with a smile. "Yes. We hope so. One of his friends, male or female, will no doubt do so and come one day to us for the reward. Not till then shall we know the truth of that strange attempt upon your life. The motive could not have been robbery, as you had nothing worth taking save your watch. If he had been found in De Gex's room at the Ritz one could have understood it." I smiled. The Chief of Police never suspected the true facts of the case, facts within my own knowledge, which were of such an amazing and startling character that I hesitated to relate them. When I left my friend I again sought Hambledon and told him all I had learnt. "H'm!" he grunted. "Very wily of De Gex to get the police to keep an eye upon me. If I'm not careful I shall suddenly find myself under arrest as a suspicious person who is in the habit of loitering in the vicinity of the great financier." "Yes," I agreed. "This seems to put an end to our present activity--does it not?" "Well, he apparently knows that we are watching," Hambledon said. "What a pity we cannot tell the police all we know." "If we did we should not be believed, and, moreover, they wouldn't hear a word against the great man who is such a friend to Spain. Money buys reputation, remember. Nobody knows that better than De Gex." Hambledon was standing at my bedroom window looking thoughtfully down upon the Puerta del Sol with its crowd of hurrying foot-passengers. "It seems a miserable ending to all our careful surveillance upon Suzor--doesn't it?" he grumbled. "True, it does.
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151  
152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
friend
 

Hambledon

 

Police

 

careful

 

reward

 
police
 
person
 

financier

 
arrest
 

betray


suspected

 

understood

 
smiled
 

suddenly

 
hesitated
 

character

 
suspicious
 
relate
 

sought

 

startling


amazing

 

grunted

 

learnt

 

knowledge

 

watching

 

window

 

bedroom

 

thoughtfully

 

Puerta

 

standing


reputation

 
remember
 

Nobody

 

surveillance

 

grumbled

 
ending
 

miserable

 
hurrying
 

passengers

 
activity

apparently
 

present

 
vicinity
 
loitering
 

agreed

 

wouldn

 
believed
 

investigated

 
infected
 

dubiously