may be off already."

"Not he," answered Peter. "It's contrary to reason to suppose he'll
guess that I can possibly know what I know. He underrates me far too
much to give me credit for that. He won't beat it; he'll bluff
it--till too late. I don't fear to lose him; I only fear to lose
Albert."

"Trust me that far."

"I'm going to. And I want to plan a little surprise of some sort, so
that Albert unconsciously helps us. We can't ask him to do anything
cute himself; he's not built that way; but he's the king to be
guarded and if the king makes an unexpected move, much may be
gained. We've got to be alive to a dozen possibilities. If, for
instance, poison is attempted and found to fail--"

"How if we gave it out that it had succeeded and that Mr. Redmayne
pretended he was mighty ill an hour after breakfast?"

"I'd thought of that. But the difficulty would be that we shan't be
in a position to say if poison is really used. No time for
chemistry."

"Try it on the cat."

Peter considered.

"A double cross is often a very pretty thing," he admitted, "but
I've seen too many examples among the police of digging a pit and
falling in themselves. One difficulty is that we don't want to alarm
Albert more than necessary. At present he only knows that I think
him in danger; but he has not the most shadowy idea that members of
his own household are implicated. He won't know it till I forbid him
to touch his breakfast. Yes; we can certainly try a double cross. He
shall order bread and milk--we know who will bring it to him. Then
his cat, 'Grillo,' shall breakfast upon it." Peter turned to Mark.
"That will convince you, my friend."

But the other shook his head.

"It depends upon circumstances. Even granted poison, many an honest
man and woman has been the innocent tool of a murderer's will."

"True enough; but we are wasting time upon an improbability. I do
not myself think it will be attempted. It is the line of least
resistance and the line of least resistance generally means the
lines of greatest risk afterward. No--he'll do something smarter
than that if he gets half a chance. The grand danger would be that
Doria should find himself alone with Albert, even for a moment. That
is the situation to circumvent and avoid at any cost. Let nothing
induce you to lose sight of one or other; and even should Doria
obviously make a run for it before I return, don't be deceived by
that, or go after him. He may adopt any ruse to g