"But if I insist----?"
"If you insist?... Why I suppose ... it's awfully good of you." She
flashed him a maddening glance.
"You do me pro--honor," he amended hastily. Then, daringly: "I don't
ask much in exchange, only----"
"A cigarette?" she suggested hastily.
He laughed, pleased and diverted. "That'll be enough now--if you'll
light it for me."
She glanced dubiously round the now almost deserted room; and a waiter
started forward as if animated by a spring. Anisty motioned him
imperiously back. "Go on," he coaxed; "no one can see." And watched,
flattered, the slim white fingers that extracted a match from the stand
and drew it swiftly down the prepared surface of the box, holding the
flickering flame to the end of a white tube whose tip lay between lips
curved, scarlet, and pouting.
There! A pale wraith of smoke floated away on the fan-churned air, and
Anisty was vaguely conscious of receiving the glowing cigarette from a
hand whose sheer perfection was but enhanced by the ripe curves of a
rounded forearm.... He inhaled deeply, with satisfaction.
Undetected by him, the girl swiftly passed a furtive handkerchief
across her lips. When he looked again she was smiling and the golden
case had disappeared.
She shook her head at him in mock reproval. "Bold man!" she called him;
but the crudity of it was lost upon him, as she had believed it would
be. The moment had come for vigorous measures, she felt, guile having
paved the way.
"Why do you call me that?"
"To appear so openly, running the gauntlet of the detectives...."
"Eh?"--startled.
"Of course you saw," she insisted.
"Saw? No. Saw what?"
"Why.... Perhaps I am mistaken, but I thought you knew and trusted to
your likeness to Mr. Maitland...."
Anisty frowned, collecting himself, bewildered. "What are you driving
at, anyhow?" he demanded roughly.
"Didn't you see the detectives? I should have thought your man would
have warned you. I noticed four loitering round the entrance, as I came
in, and feared...."
"Why didn't you tell me, then?"
"I have just told you the reason. I supposed you were in your
disguise...."
"That's so." The alarmed expression gradually faded, though he remained
troubled. "I sure am Maitland to the life," he continued with
satisfaction. "Even the head-waiter----"
"And of course," she insinuated delicately, "you have disposed of the
loot?"