ANNETTE AT BAY
But meanwhile Lechmere had not been idle. His steadygoing brain had not
failed to see the danger arise after the matter of the countess's
burglary had come into the hands of the police. And he seemed to fancy
that he had discovered a way out of the difficulty. After a message to
Scotland Yard making an appointment an hour later at the house of
Countess Saens he had proceeded to the queen's hotel. He was a little
disappointed to find that already Jessie had departed some short time.
He was about to go off in search of Jessie when she returned with her
story. Lechmere smiled with the air of a man who holds the key to the
situation.
"You need not be in the least alarmed," he said. "Hope was quite right
when he suggested that perhaps I could help you in the matter. Not only
am I going to help, but I am going to put you a long way out of the
reach of the police. We are going as far as Countess Saens's house."
"I am!" Jessie exclaimed. "Why, the mere fact of my being there face to
face with the countess----"
"My dear young lady, you are not going to be face to face with the
countess. She has gone abroad. You will go with me in a cab, you will
keep your veil down and you will wait in the drawing-room until I want
you. I daresay all this sounds very abrupt, but it is quite necessary.
Now come bustle along before other things come to complicate matters."
Jessie followed in a helpless kind of way. It seemed to her that she was
off on another series of bewildering adventures before the last series
was closed almost. But she had her previous experience to keep her
courage to the sticking point and Lechmere's face gave her confidence.
"When am I going to get out of this coil?" she asked with a smile.
"_You_ are going to get out of it very quietly," Lechmere said gravely.
"And after that you are going to marry my young friend Ronald Hope, whom
I regard as a very lucky fellow. When the tangle itself is likely to
end, Heaven only knows. The best thing that could happen to the Queen of
Asturia would be the death of the king. She would know what peace meant
then and the removal of the king by natural means would enable Europe to
interfere and so check the designs of Russia. But here we are."
The cab stopped at length and the occupants alighted. At Lechmere's
bidding, Jessie raised her veil.
"The countess is not at home?" Lechmere asked the footman. "How
annoying! It is rather an urgent and private affair that Miss Vera
Galloway desires to see your mistress upon. But perhaps Annette the maid
will be able to answer a few questions for me. Shew us into the
drawing-room and send Annette to us there."
The footman bowed and shewed no signs of astonishment. He was too used
to strange requests and equally strange visitors to that house. He led
the way gravely enough upstairs and announced that he would at once send
for Annette to see Miss Galloway.
"So far, so good," Lechmere muttered. "I shall want you to see Annette a
little later on, Miss Harcourt, but for the present I shall be glad if
you will take your seat in the little inner drawing-room. It is just as
well perhaps that you should overhear all that is said."
Jessie asked no questions, but she could not altogether repress a
natural curiosity to know what was going to take place next. From where
she was seated she had a perfect view of all that was going on in the
large drawing-room without being seen herself. Annette came in quite
self-possessed and just a little demure in the presence of the tall
grey-faced stranger.
"I was told that Miss Galloway was here, M'sieu," she said. "It strikes
to me, M'sieu----"
"As a matter of fact Miss Galloway is not here at all," said Lechmere
coolly. "This is another young lady whom you will see all in good time,
but not quite yet. I had no desire to arouse the curiosity of your
fellow servants. The footman, for instance, who is a very good-looking
fellow, may be a lover of yours. Ah, so there has been tender passages
between you?"
"M'sieu is a gentleman and cannot be contradicted," Annette said
demurely. "If you say so----"
"Oh, well. That is bad hearing, I am afraid you are a sad flirt. What a
dreadful tragedy might be precipitated here if this thing came to the
ears of your devoted Robert."
Annette changed colour and the smile died out of her eyes. She looked
quite anxiously at the speaker.
"Listen to me," he said sternly. "I am disposed to help you and shield
you if you help me. If we make a kind of compact together I will say
nothing about those champagne suppers and I will keep my own council
over certain important papers that may later on be sold for a good round
sum--a sum so big, in fact, that Robert and yourself will be able to
take a boarding-house. Where was it that you preferred the
establishment? Ah, I have it--in Brook Street."
All the blood left the listener's cheeks, the audacious expression faded
and left her eyes cloudy and troubled.
"M'sieu is too clever for me," she whispered. "What do you want me to
do?"
"Very little. It is about a robbery here. Now it is positively absurd
that Miss Galloway could be the thief as you suggested. You smile, you
fancy that perhaps Miss Galloway has a double. Now it all rests on you
to say whether that double is the proper person or not. If she was
produced by the police and you said it was _not_ the lady who surprised
you last night, why, there would be an end of the matter--for you and
Robert."
A look of quiet cunning intelligence flashed across Annette's face.
"It is plain what you mean," she said. "I quite understand. I am brought
face to face with the young lady and I stare at her again and again. I
study her with a puzzled frown on my face--like this--and then I say
that it is not the person. I am absolutely certain of my facts. She is
different, the eyes are not the same colour. I know not what the eyes
and hair of your friend the young lady are like, but whether _they are_
like the missing thief's are different. See, M'sieu?"
"I see perfectly well, Annette," Lechmere smiled. "You see that man
loitering on the other side of the road? Fetch him up here and say that
Mr. Lechmere is waiting. He is a leading official at Scotland Yard, and
I am to meet him here by appointment. Oh, by the way, where is your
Robert to be found?"
"Guards Buildings," Annette whispered. "He waits on the second floor
gentleman there. But you will not----"
"No, I will not," said Lechmere, passing his hand over his face to hide
a smile, for he had made a further discovery. "Play your part properly
and I will play mine. And now go and fetch Inspector Taske here and say
that I am waiting for him."
Inspector Taske came up and Lechmere conducted him into the small
drawing-room. At a sign from him Jessie raised her veil. She began to
understand what was coming.
"This is Miss Jessie Harcourt," said Lechmere, "daughter of my old
friend Colonel Harcourt. It has been suggested that Miss Harcourt came
here last night and stole certain papers. She only found it out this
morning when she--er--came out of the hospital. All this absurd bother
has arisen because Miss Harcourt is exceedingly like Miss Galloway whom
the maid Annette here stupidly picked out as the thief, picked her out
at Merehaven House, mind you, when she was in full evening dress at a
party! Then suspicions were directed to my young lady friend here,
forsooth because of the likeness, and she is being tracked by your
fellows, Taske. There is a strong light here, and I am going to settle
the matter once and for all. Now, Annette, look very carefully at this
lady and say if you have ever seen her before."
Jessie bore the scrutiny more or less firmly and haughtily because she
herself had never seen Annette's face before. Everything depended upon
the girl's reply. Her examination was long and careful, as if she did
not want to outrage her conscience in the smallest degree. Then she
shook her head.
"The likeness is great," she said. "Positively there are three young
ladies almost the same. And we make mistakes--and did not you police
bring a man all the way here from Australia the other day on a charge of
murder only to find he was the wrong person? And he had been sworn to,
_ma foi_. Therefore it behoves me to be careful. All the same, I can
speak with confidence. If it were dark I could say that here was the
thief. But in the daylight, _non_. Her eyes were dark, the hair very
rich brown. And here the eyes are grey and the hair a lovely shade of
gold. This is not the lady."
The Inspector turned slightly on his heel as if he had heard quite
sufficient.
"This ends the matter," he said. "I am sorry that Miss Harcourt has been
molested and I will see that she is not further annoyed. I wish you good
morning, sir."
The Inspector departed and at a sign from Lechmere, Jessie followed.
Annette bowed demurely, but the smile on her face vanished and her eyes
grew troubled as she found herself alone. Down in the street the
newsboys were shouting something. Lechmere listened eagerly to hear:--
"Alarming railway accident near Paris. Breakdown of a special train.
Suspected outrage on the part of the French Anarchists. Serious accident
to the King of Asturia. Special."