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Fortunately, I suspected an attempt, and baited the trap accordingly." "What caused you to suspect?" "Because more than once both Murie and the girl seemed to be seized by an unusual desire to pry into my business." "You don't think that our friend Flockart had anything to do with the affair?" the Frenchman suggested. "No, no. Not in the least. I know Flockart too well," declared the old man.
Krail knew this, and he and his friend this gentleman here had very ingeniously resolved to get rid of me by making it appear that Miss Gabrielle had poisoned me by accident." "A lie!" declared Flockart fiercely, though his efforts to remain imperturbed were now palpable. "You will be given due opportunity of disproving my allegations," Hamilton said.
"Then why did you write breaking off your engagement?" "He told you that?" she exclaimed in surprise. The truth was that Murie had told Flockart nothing. He had not even seen him. It was only a wild guess on Flockart's part. "Tell me," she urged anxiously, "what did he say concerning myself?" Flockart hesitated. His mind was instantly active in the concoction of a story.
He had alighted at Bordighera station from the rapide from Paris, spent the night at a third-rate hotel in order not to be recognised at the Angst or any of the smarter houses, and had met him by appointment to explain the present situation. His remarks, however, were the reverse of reassuring. What did he suspect? "I don't quite follow you, Krail," Flockart said.
He is the moving spirit of that shady house, without a doubt," declared Flockart, who had so often grasped the blind man's hand in friendship. "In such fear that his transactions should become known, and that exposure might result, he actually had prepared documents on purpose to mislead those who pried into his affairs. Therefore, the instant we discover the truth, fortune will be at our hand.
"Go to your room at once. Remain with me, Flockart. I want to speak to you." The girl saw herself convicted by those unfortunate words she had used words meant in defiance of her arch-enemy Flockart, but which had placed her in ignominy and disgrace. Ah, if she could only stand firm and speak the ghastly truth! But, alas! she dared not.
She dared not tell her father the reason; therefore, in order to turn the subject, she replied, with a forced laugh, "Oh, well, of course, I may be mistaken; but that's my opinion." "A mere prejudice, child; I'm sure it is. As far as I know, Flockart is quite an excellent fellow, and is most kind both to your mother and to myself." Gabrielle's brow contracted.
To wade into the burn and disentangle her line from beneath a stone was to her quite a small occurrence, for she would never let either Stewart or any of the under-keepers accompany her. Why Flockart had so suddenly sought her society she failed to discern. Hitherto, though always extremely polite, he had treated her as a child, which she naturally resented.
At Sir Henry's urgent request, his wife came back to Glencardine a week after the tragic end of Gerlach, and was compelled to make full confession how, under the man's sinister influence, both she and Flockart had been forced to act. To her husband she proved beyond all doubt that she had been in complete ignorance of the truth concerning the affair in the Pontarme Forest until long afterwards.
"Most honourable!" the man declared with a pretence of admiration, yet underlying it all was a craftiness that surely was unsurpassed. That visit of his to Northamptonshire was made with some ulterior motive, yet what it was the girl was unable to discover. She would surely have been cleverer than most people had she been able to discern the hidden, sinister motives of James Flockart.
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