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Updated: June 12, 2025
Nothing was at first to be seen of the valet. Duvall stepped forward, then turned quickly and spoke. "Shut the door, please," he said in a tense voice. Dufrenne did so, while the Ambassador strode forward and followed Duvall's gaze with a look of horror.
She glanced toward her mother with a tired smile, then sank back upon the cushions. A moment later they were whirling toward the city. Duvall's ride back to town with Mrs. Morton and Ruth was quite uneventful. The latter, as she had explained, was ill, weak, indisposed to talk. Duvall and Mrs.
She would at once try to communicate with, to warn, her confederate, and it was in just such ways as this, Duvall's experience told him, that criminals so often betrayed themselves. If, by frightening Miss Ford, he could cause her to flee to join her companion the tracing of the latter would become comparatively simple. He went up to the door of No. 162 and rang the bell.
It seemed not improbable that among them he would find the one whose envy had led to the sending of the threats Ruth had been receiving. Presently the scene was finished, and Ruth, in response to a call from Duvall's companion, came toward them. "Miss Morton," the latter said, "let me present Mr. Richards." This was the name Duvall had given.
It had all been managed very skilfully; the capping of the wells by the Universal's agent, the practical sealing up of the entire district, being the first public intimation of the result of Duvall's treachery and the complete triumph of a foreign monopoly.
Duvall began to realize that the case against his prisoner was far from complete. Returning from a fruitless search of the bedroom, Duvall's eye fell upon the two suitcases that the women had carried in their flight. He bent over to them at once, and proceeded to open them, one after the other. "Search them, please." He nodded to Grace.
Everything else seemed in its place. Duvall's first act was to examine the window. The one fronting on the fire escape was closed and tightly fastened. It was perfectly clear that no one had entered the room in that way. The other window, facing on the court, was raised a few inches, just as Mrs. Morton had left it half an hour before. Duvall turned to his companion with a puzzled frown.
Without loosening his hold upon Duvall's arm, the doctor called to the chauffeur, "Ring the bell." The latter did so. In a moment, a servant appeared. "Send Max and Rudolph here," cried Hartmann, and presently two husky young Germans came out of the house. Hartmann spoke a few quick words to them in their own language and they ranged themselves on either side of the cab door.
The loss of the box Duvall's faithlessness his own failure, all plunged him into the deepest despair. "Mon Dieu!" he muttered to himself. "Duvall it is incredible!" Suddenly he turned. The Ambassador had begun to question Dufrenne. "What did this Dr. Hartmann do, when the box was given to him?" he asked in a voice trembling with excitement.
Her closed eyes, her slow but regular breathing, indicated that the drug he had given her had begun to take effect. Stealthily Duvall's hand reached toward the small black satchel. With eager fingers he pressed the catch, and as the bag opened, began to draw out its contents. The woman, however, seemed far less helpless than he had supposed.
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