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Leithcourt addressed him as "Martin," and began to relate a quarrel which his head-gamekeeper had had that day with one of the small farmers on the estate regarding the killing of some rabbits. And while they were talking Muriel suggested that we should stroll down to the tennis-courts again, an invitation which, much as I regretted leaving the two men, I was bound to accept.
Next moment I realized that I was at that place where Leithcourt so persistently kept his disappointed tryst, having approached it from within the wood. The sound alarmed me, and yet it was neither an explosion of fire-arms nor a startling cry for help. One word reached me in the darkness one single word of bitter and withering reproach.
"That is curious," I remarked, recollecting the hurried departure from Rannoch. "They've made it up, I suppose?" "They never quarreled, to my knowledge." "Then why did Leithcourt leave Scotland so hurriedly on Chater's arrival? You know all about the affair, of course?" He nodded, saying with a grim smile, "Yes; I know. The party up there must have been a very interesting one.
I tried to get from him all that he knew concerning Elma, but he seemed, for some curious reason, disinclined to tell. All I could gather was that Leithcourt was in league with Chater and Woodroffe, and that Muriel had acted as an entirely innocent agent. What the conspiracy was, or what was its motive, I could not discern. I was as far off the solution of the problem as ever.
I inquired, urging him to reveal to me all he knew concerning him. "He stands in great fear of the poor young lady, I believe, for it was at his instigation that Leithcourt and his friends took her on that fatal yachting cruise." "And what was your connection with them?" "Well, I was Leithcourt's servant," was his reply.
There is widespread conspiracy here, depend upon it, Mr. Gregg. It will be an interesting case when we get to the bottom of it all. I only wish this fellow Chater would tell us the reason he called upon Leithcourt." "What does he say?" "Merely that he has no wish to prosecute, and that he has no statement to make." "Can't you compel him to say something?" I asked. "No, I can't.
Was it Leithcourt himself whom I had surprised? That idea somehow became impressed upon me and I suddenly resolved to go boldly across to Rannoch and ascertain for myself.
Of course she told me nothing of her own feelings or affections, yet I recognized in both her words and her bearing a curious apathy a want of the real enthusiasm of affection. Woodroffe, much her senior, was her father's friend, and it therefore seemed to me more than likely that Leithcourt was pressing a matrimonial alliance upon his daughter for some ulterior motive.
"Have you actually fallen in love with her from her picture?" "I'm hardly given to that kind of thing, Miss Leithcourt," I answered with mock severity. "I don't think even my worst enemy could call me a flirt, could she?" "No. I will give you your due," she declared. "You never do flirt. That is why I like you." "Thanks for your candor, Miss Leithcourt," I said.
Surely the less the police know about this matter the better, otherwise the Signorina Leithcourt must suffer for her father's avarice and evil-doing." "Yes," cried Jack anxiously. "That's right, Olinto. The police must know nothing. The reprisals we must make ourselves. But who was it who shot me in Suffolk Street?" "The same man, Martin Woodroffe." "Then the assassin is back from Russia?"
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