She solemnly nodded. "It is industrious; every day it brings me news of
this and that."
"And it tells you what of this?"
"Enough to make you what I styled you a moment ago: a mystery."
"Is it permitted to ask, how a mystery?"
"Assuredly. To begin with: It is now six months since you settled down,
apparently to vegetate in this dry climate."
"You distrust appearance?"
"Always when so far out of character. It is not like Michael Lanyard to
become static all at once. But here you live quietly, in the cheapest
decent lodgings, you have no callers, you write few letters, you see no
friends--but one--and spend no money on yourself; only when you are seen
in public with Madame de Montalais you seem indifferent to expense. You
see--?"
"I see one thing plainly: that it were well to put salt on the tail of
that little bird and wring its damned neck."
"But you do not see that this is, in one of your history, questionable
conduct? It is too much like reversion to your old days, when you lived
solitary and worked alone, making the name of the Lone Wolf famous in
Europe by following out your theory that a thief to be successful should
have no friends to betray him."
"But today!" Lanyard remonstrated--"the source of this astonishingly
detailed and accurate information about my modest habits can hardly have
failed to assure itself that they are all well within the law."
"On the surface. As were those of Michael Lanyard, the world-known
Parisian connoisseur of art before the War. But the cunning that made it
possible for the Lone Wolf to maintain that disguise, unsuspected by the
keenest criminal investigators of the Continent, has not necessarily
failed with years. To the contrary: what you did once you should be able
to do again, with even greater success, since you are now older, less
hot-headed, more astute. Let me tell you, my dear friend!" the woman
concluded with an unmistakable note of earnestness: "they have great
respect for your abilities, those who are interested in you today."
"It seems, then," said Lanyard after a reflective pause, "I have to
thank you for a warning."
"I would be an ungrateful wretch did I fail to give it, who owe you my
life twice over at least."
"I think we may call that debt cancelled if you'll answer one question."
"No questions!" A jewelled hand flashed a sign of refusal. "I have said
more than was wise as it is."