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Updated: June 7, 2025
There was murder in the eyes of the spy as he lingered, truculently glowering at the smiling adventurer; and for an instant Lanyard was well-persuaded he had gone too far, that even there, even on that busy junction of two crowded thoroughfares, Ekstrom would let his temper get the better of his judgment and risk everything in an attempt upon the life of his despoiler. But he was mistaken.
He paused and drew a hand across his eyes. "It was, then, Ekstrom you think?" Lanyard demanded. "Unquestionably! De Morbihan had learned I know of your bargain with Ducroy; and I know, too, that he and Ekstrom spent each morning in the hangars at St. Germain, after your sensational evasion.
Nor would the Prussian give an inch when Lanyard paused, confronting him squarely, within arm's length. "Ekstrom," the adventurer began in a voice lacking perceptible inflection ... "what is between you and me needs no recounting. You know it too well I likewise. It is my wish and my intention to kill you with my two hands.
The group round the doorway was recovering from its stupefaction. Three struck off from it toward the line of waiting cars. Of these the foremost was Ekstrom. Simultaneously the 'bus, lumbering drunkenly, lurched into Columbus Circle, and the roadster left the curb carrying in addition to the driver two passengers Ekstrom on the running-board.
Melancholy as well rode upon that black-winged wind. At pause beneath the bridge, the adventurer rested elbows upon the teakwood rail and with importunate eyes searched the masked face of his destiny. There was great fear in his heart, not of death, but lest death overtake him before that scarlet hour when he should encounter the man whom he must always think of as "Ekstrom."
"What were you doing there?" she whispered in the end. "Trying to find that paper, which I had seen Ekstrom sell to Colonel Stanistreet, so that I might make good my promise and relieve your distress by returning it to you.
If the events of the last few hours had meant anything whatever they had demonstrated two truths which shone like beacon lights: that Manhattan Island was overpopulated as long as both he and Ekstrom remained on it; that Ekstrom had been goaded to the verge of aberration by the discovery that Lanyard had come safely through the Assyrian debacle to take up anew his self-appointed office of Nemesis to the Prussian spy system in general and to the genius of its American bureau in particular.
I had opened the safe before he entered, and searched it thoroughly, and knew the paper was not there though at that time it never entered my thick head to suspect Blensop of treachery. It was neither Blensop nor Ekstrom, Miss Brooke ... it was I who stole that necklace." She made no sound and did not stir; and though he dared not look he knew her stricken gaze was steadfast to his face.
Colonel Stanistreet was not at home. Knowing what we know now, that Blensop was a creature of the German system here, bought body, soul, and conscience through its studied pandering to his vices, we know he could not well have refused to surrender the combination on demand." "Still I fail to understand...." "Ekstrom, being Ekstrom, could not resist the opportunity to play double.
With an infuriated oath the German stopped short: but he dared not ignore the readiness with which his tormentor imitated the manoeuvre and kept the pistol trained through the fabric of his raincoat. "Yes ?" the adventurer enquired with an exasperating accent of surprise. "Understand me," Ekstrom muttered vindictively: "next time I'll show you no mercy " "But if there is no next time?
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