“By a perfectly logical process. If Miss Marvell has had warning
letters——”
“Miss Marvell? She has been here?”
“She has just left. As I was saying, if she, as the holder of one
of the twin diamonds, has received a mysterious series of warnings,
you, as the holder of the other stone, must necessarily have done
the same. You see how simple it is? I am right, then, you have
received these strange communications also?”
For a moment she hesitated, as though in doubt whether to trust me
or not, then she bowed her head in assent with a little smile.
“That is so,” she acknowledged.
“Were yours, too, left by hand—by a Chinaman?”
“No, they came by post; but, tell me, has Miss Marvell undergone
the same experience, then?”
I recounted to her the events of the morning. She listened
attentively.
“It all fits in. My letters are the duplicates of hers. It is true
that they came by post, but there is a curious perfume impregnating
them—something in the nature of joss-stick—that at once suggested
the East to me. What does it all mean?”