FEAR!
Leona Lalage held herself up talking bravely about the weather, whilst
Prout was dumb with admiration of her audacity. Her very recklessness
inspired his respect. He little knew of the deadly fear and suffering
concealed behind that smiling mask. The last thing he saw as he closed
the door of the brougham was an averted face and a small hand.
The blood horses dashed on, whilst Leona Lalage lay back against the
cushions and fainted for the third time in her life. It had been a
wonderful effort to put the deadly feeling off so long, but her iron
will had conquered.
She came to herself again with a shudder and a feeling of anguish in
every limb. She was not suspected yet, or even a fool of an English
detective would not have shown her that picture. Broken and agitated
as she was, her quick brain began to work again.
In the first place she must get those notes back from Isidore. Even if
they had to be obtained by force it must be done. She took a visiting
card from her case, and in as steady a hand as possible penciled a
line or two on the back asking Isidore to come round and dine with her
that evening. Once this was done and left at the capitalist's rooms
she felt a little easier in her mind. She was doing something.
Hence she drove on to the Metropole with the hope of seeing Maitrank.
She had to wait there till she was angry and impatient. Hitherto she
had not had to wait. She was going to get to the bottom of that
diamond business if she had to stay all day. A stolid clerk came out
and said Herr Maitrank was disengaged.
Maitrank, in his shirtsleeves, was smoking one of his black cigars.
He made no apology for his attire nor for the rank tobacco between his
yellow teeth. How different the last time when they had met in the
millionaire's office.
"Why did you keep me waiting so long?" the Countess demanded.
Maitrank chuckled. He admired a fighter, and here was one to his hand.
It was pretty audacious in a woman who had swindled him out of a
fortune.
"I was merely deferring the pleasure, my dear," he said. "What can I
do for you? Any fresh loan on the banks of the clouds or castles in
the air or anything of that kind? Or do you wish to sell me any
diamonds?"
"I swear to you," the Countess said, "that I was innocent over those
diamonds. I honestly believed them to be genuine, and worth far more
money than the sum for which I parted with them. I feel now that I
have been tricked. You old wolf, you had the real stones taken away
for some purpose of your own."
She bent over the table and shook her clenched hand angrily in the old
man's face. He showed his teeth in a snarl.
"Gently, gently," he growled. "Let us look at those gems. I have them
here. See, are those the ones you passed over to me?"
He pitched the glittering gauds contemptuously on the desk. Leona
examined them carefully So far as she could see no change had been
made. And where the stones had been filed she could see the dull
scratched edges. Was this the work of the hidden enemy or another
cruel stroke of ill fortune?
"They look like the same," she admitted grudgingly. "I'm afraid you're
right there."
"Take them back to the place where you purloined them," Maitrank
grinned.
Leona was silent. Whence the gems came was no business of her
opponent. He seemed to be pleased about something. And he made no
allusion to his money, which was a very bad sign. The Countess brought
up the subject.
"What are you going to do?" she asked meaningly.
"I am going to do nothing--for the present." Maitrank replied. "I am
going to pursue what that admirable diplomatist Beaconsfield called a
policy of masterly inactivity. If I do not get my money in cash I
shall in another way."
"But you are going to get it?" Leona said eagerly. "I have practically
effected a loan with the firm of Bernstein of New York--why do you
laugh?"
"Because I am amused, because I am greatly amused. You are wasting
your time and all your pretty schemes there. The name of a firm means
nothing in business nowadays. I have a different name in every capital
in Europe. Also I have another different name in New York. For
instance, my firm is called Ernstein and Co., of 149, Broadway. Ah,
ah!"
"So I have been corresponding with you all the time?"
"Yes. As the English say, that is about the size of it. Those letters
of yours! Oh, oh! The fun I have had out of this. And the magnificent
lies!"
But Maitrank was alone. The Countess had bounced in a fury out of the
room. At every turn fate seemed to be against her now.
That deadly fear was coming on her again. It was hard to be baffled
and beaten at every turn like this, and yet not be able to strike a
single blow in return. There was the haunting terror that her enemies
knew too much, and that the sword would fall when they pleased.
Otherwise the cruel, greedy nature of Maitrank would never have held
her off like this. He seemed to be resigned to the loss of the money,
but he was evidently going to take it out in another way. Leona would
have given years of her life to know which way.
There was nobody to turn to, nobody to advise her now, but Balmayne.
He had done pretty well on the whole; he had contrived to keep himself
out of danger, and at the first sign of the collapse he would fly.
But anybody was better than the sapping away of mind and body brooding
alone. Balmayne listened to everything with a grave face.
"I quite agree with you over those notes," he said. "They must be
recovered at any cost from Isidore."
"Think," Leona whispered, "set your wits to work. Meanwhile I have
asked him to come here tonight to dine. Between now and then we shall
surely find some way. At present I can only think of drugging and
stealing his keys. But with our experience we can surely find better
methods than that."
"Isidore won't come," Balmayne said, curtly.
The prophecy proved to be correct. Isidore regretted that he had
another engagement to dine out this evening. Perhaps it was only a
pleasure deferred to the end of the week. Leona tore the paper up
passionately.