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"We were chatting, and Mr. De Gex had just said that it was about time we were off to Olympia, when I sipped my coffee. I noticed that both Doctor Moroni and our host glanced at me curiously. The coffee tasted unusually sweet, and also it seemed to be slightly perfumed, I remember, almost like pot-pourri.
"Be perfectly frank with me," I replied promptly. "Both of us have all to lose if we close our eyes to the conspiracy against us on the part of your friend De Gex and his shrewd and unscrupulous accomplice, Tito Moroni." "Moroni is one of the most popular doctors in Florence," she remarked. "I'm perfectly aware of that," was my reply.
His crafty unscrupulousness was shown by the manner in which his partner, to whom he owed a big sum, had been cleverly secretly killed by a hireling a friend of the dead Despujol. Oswald De Gex posed to the world as an honest and upright man of business whose financial aid was welcomed cordially by all the hard-up States in Europe.
But I saw that if I did so he would not only disbelieve me, but put me down as an exaggerating fool. So I held my tongue. I further questioned him concerning De Gex and his friend Suzor. "Monsieur Suzor has been in Madrid before," he said. "He is agent of Señor De Gex. But how wealthy the latter must be! During the war he made a big loan to our Government.
It was apparent that De Gex was anxious to get rid of me. Indeed, as we stood together in that fine old room, across the marble floor of which strayed long beams of sunlight, the door opened and a pretty woman came in. She was dressed to go out, and asked: "Will you be long, dear?" It was the beautiful Mrs. De Gex!
Most unfortunate!" he heard De Gex say. "I am very glad, however, that you have come to me so quickly. You had a telegram from Siguenza eh?" "I received it only a quarter of an hour ago, sir," the woman had replied in broken English. Then De Gex had apparently given her something for her services, and dismissed her. "A telegram from Siguenza!" I exclaimed, when my friend Harry had told me this.
After saying good-bye to Dale, who went down with his boyish tread, she detained me for a second or two, holding my hand, and again her clasp enveloped it like some clinging sea-plant. She looked at me very wistfully. "The next time you come, Mr. de Gex, do come as a friend and not as an enemy." I was startled. I thought I had conducted the interview with peculiar suavity. "An enemy, dear lady?"
"I follow the trend of your thoughts, Hugh. De Gex is the controlling influence of great events, but why should he seek to send you into an asylum for the insane?" "With the same motive that he endeavoured to send into such an asylum poor Gabrielle Tennison," I said bitterly. "In law we have an old adage which says 'discover the motive and you also discover the miscreant," Harry remarked.
Moroni was in London, hence he would no doubt visit De Gex. Hambledon was unknown to Moroni, therefore he watched in Stretton Street on the following night, and in his work of observation he was assisted by Norah, who had been told something of the strange circumstances, though of course not the whole amazing story.
De Gex apologized to his visitor for not offering him a cigarette, remarking that the striking of a match might reveal their presence to anyone strolling in the grounds, for guests at dances frequently have that habit. "Indeed, after you have gone, Moroni, I am meeting the lady whom I mentioned, and shall walk with her outside here. I want to speak with her in private."
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