United States or Albania ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
He called the inspector to him and whispered a word in his ear. Then he rose and said: "I think, gentlemen, we ought to go and examine the bedrooms, and, above all, make sure that the safe in M. Gournay-Martin's bedroom has not been tampered with."
"The telegram is the important thing this telegram," said M. Gournay-Martin feverishly. "It concerns the coronet. Is it going to be disregarded?" "Oh, no, no," said M. Formery in a soothing tone. "It will be taken into account. It will certainly be taken into account." M. Gournay-Martin's butler appeared in the doorway of the drawing-room: "If you please, sir, lunch is served," he said.
"I'm afraid I haven't the case," said Lupin, in a tone of regret. "If you remember, I left it at Gournay-Martin's in your charge." Guerchard examined the coronet carefully. He looked at the stones in it; he weighed it in his right hand, and he weighed it in his left. "Are you sure it's the real one?" said Lupin, in a tone of acute but affected anxiety.
"Unless I'm very much mistaken, they came in by the front door of M. Gournay-Martin's house." "Of course," said the Duke. "I was forgetting. They brought the keys from Charmerace." "Yes, but who drew the bolts for them?" said Guerchard. "The concierge bolted them before he went to bed. He told me so. He was telling the truth I know when that kind of man is telling the truth."
Half-way up the flight he stooped, and picked up a little spray of flowers: "Fresh!" he said. "These have not been long plucked." "Salvias," said the Duke. "Salvias they are," said Guerchard. "Pink salvias; and there is only one gardener in France who has ever succeeded in getting this shade M. Gournay-Martin's gardener at Charmerace. I'm a gardener myself."
"I think it very unlikely that Lupin will look for the coronet in M. Gournay-Martin's bedroom. He would know very well that that is the last place to find it now." The Duke went on into the drawing-room. At the door Guerchard stopped and said: "I will just go and post my men, your Grace." "Very good," said the Duke; and he went into the drawing-room. He sat down, lighted a cigarette, and yawned.
Once I had changed the coronet under that fat old fool Gournay-Martin's very eyes ... once you and Sonia were out of their clutches, all I had to do was to slip away. Did I? Not a bit of it!
"The drawing-room door is locked. We ought to find M. Formery hammering on it." And he smiled as if he found the thought pleasing. They went back up the stairs, through the opening, into the drawing-room of M. Gournay-Martin's house. Sure enough, from the other side of the locked door came the excited voice of M. Formery, crying: "Guerchard! Guerchard! What are you doing? Let me in!
"No business success of yours could surprise me," said the Duke blandly, with a faint, ironical smile. M. Gournay-Martin's little pig's eyes danced and sparkled; and the smiles flowed over the distended skin of his face like little ripples over a stagnant pool, reluctantly. It seemed to be too tightly stretched for smiles. "The car's four years old," he said joyfully.
You mustn't let them confuse you." "Thank you, your Grace, I will try and be as clear as I can," said Sonia; and she gave him an eloquent glance, full of gratitude for the warning; and went down the stairs with firm steps. The Duke went on up the stairs, and knocked softly at the door of M. Gournay-Martin's bedroom. There was no answer to his knock, and he quietly opened the door and looked in.
Word Of The Day